Travels Through the Universe
by SheMarauder
Summary: On her way back to the orphanage, Danielle Abby was forced to travel through the pouring rain. Unfortunately for her she never made it back to the orphanage, and she finds herself in a not-so-unfamiliar place. (Rated T because I dont know) ps. I own nothing of Harry Potter
1. Chapter 1

The library had finally closed for the day, forcing me to start walking home. Well, home is a strong word. Ten years ago, when I was five, both of my parents had been killed in and I've been in an orphanage ever since.

My father had gone to pick my mother up from the hospital while I waited at a daycare. She had just given birth to my baby brother and I was eagerly awaiting their return, but they never came. I was later told, by a very nice police officer, that they were gone and "in a better place". At five years old I didn't fully understand what that meant, but now I do. When no other family members came forward to claim me they put me in an orphanage.

It wasn't so bad. The only thing I can complain about was the quality of the food there and the lack of Internet. Although growing up there was one kid named Brian, and his two lackeys, Kevin and Lewis, who would always push the others around. Since I was the new kid they tormented me the most. They loved making fun of my eyes the most. They were a dark purple color.

There was one time when Brian, Kevin and Lewis had sunk so low that they had started messing with a snake hiding in the bushes. They were laughing and poking at it with a stick. I had quietly walked up behind Brian and tapped his shoulder. When he turned around I socked him right in the nose. I felt it break beneath my fist and watched with satisfaction as he dropped to the ground with a cry, holding his bleeding nose. Kevin and Lewis helped him up and brought him inside, shouting insults at me all the way.

I looked under the bush and saw a small, orange snake with red stripes going down its back. It seemed to have calmed down so I coaxed it out from under the bush and allowed it to crawl around my shoulders. It was only about seven inches or so, still a baby. She's been with me ever since.

Apparently they had take Brian to the orphanages head caretaker and I was punished. Brian was only ever seen as an angel in all of the caretakers eyes and I was labelled a trouble maker ever since. It was totally worth it when I saw Brian's crooked nose the next day.

Ever since that day Brian had gotten even worse towards me. He began beating me up, but nobody would come to help me because they were scared Brian would start beating them up too. I learned not to make any pained noises while he did this because it only egged him on.

When I turned thirteen I would escape to the library after school and read whatever book I could find. I have probably read every book in that library, but my favorite was the Harry Potter series. After I finished the books I watched the movie on the library computers. And let me tell you, I totally feel for Voldemort. I'm not saying what he did was right, because it really wasn't, but he was in an orphanage just like I am and I can see why he would hate the muggles. Although his hate was very deep.

It was when I was fourteen I started reading all the fanfictions about Harry Potter. I've always thought it would be really cool to be a wizard (technically witch but who cares) and I've always wished to go to Hogwarts. But it was impossible, not only was it a fantasy story, but I lived in America. I had no way to get there even if it was real.

I had barely made it ten feet from the library when I felt a drop of rain hit my head. I looked up, only for another drop to land in my green eyes. I ducked my head and rubbed at my eye, jostling the snake around my shoulders. I heard the irritated hiss. "Sorry Basil." I wasn't very creative when I have her the name, but when I read Harry Potter I decided I would make it short for Basilisk. Although technically that wasn't much of a name either but I didn't care.

The rain started coming down even harder until it finally it was coming down in sheets. "You've got to be kidding me." My dirty blonde, almost brown, hair was quickly soaked with no hood to protect it. And just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, lightning lit up the sky, followed by booming thunder.

I broke out into a sprint, hoping to get to the orphanage as soon as possible. But the rain was coming down so hard I couldn't see very far in front of me. I would have ignored and continued running, but I slipped in a puddle.

I was laying on my back, the air being knocked out of me. My dazed eyes were looking up at the sky, and the last thing I saw was a bright flash of light and an all consuming darkness.

* * *

><p>For those who aren't sure, she was struck by lightning. And it seems that for my stories my characters have really colorful eyes.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Waking up was not a pleasant experience. My whole body positively ached, deep down to my bones. I wanted nothing more than to go back to that blissful darkness where there wasn't any pain, but unfortunately it seemed like that wasn't going to happen.

Stiffly sitting up I looked around and saw Basil laid out on the ground next to me. I scrambled onto my knees and carefully picked her up. She was limp in my hands, but thankfully conscious. She gave a weak hiss as she flicked out her tongue.

I put her on my shoulders so she might be allowed to rest as I shakily stood up fro. The ground. I closed my eyes and leaned against the iron gates next to me to catch my breath. My eyes then snapped open and I stumbled away from the gate that shouldn't be there.

I looked up at the wrought iron gate. Two winged gargoyles standing guard on top of them. Looking through the gates I saw the most beautiful stone castle. The grounds around it were made up of mostly trees, but in one section of the grounds looked to be a giant stadium like buildings. There were three hoops on each end of the field. They were so high up that I wasn't sure what they were for. They look like the quidditch fields from Harry Potter I thought.

I walked up the trail to the large oak doors. I politely knocked before pushing one of the doors open. When I closed it behind me I couldn't help but think These people really need to be better at locking their entrances.

Looking down the hall I heard nothing but silence. I glanced around before continuing my journey through the castle hallways. I reached the end of the hall and looked up to the spiraling marble staircases. The moving staircases.

Impossible! I must be dreaming. But how could I have been dreaming? I don't even remember falling asleep.

And I don't. I remember leaving the library and heading back to the orphanage in the pouring rain and…nothing. I thought harder, but I could only recall a flash of light. So I wasn't asleep. A coma maybe? I thought a little longer and gasped I could've died and gone into the Harry Potter universe! If it's even possible. I looked around me at the moving stairs and the portraits, just now noticing the portraits were moving as well. It could be possible.

The possibility that this could be real brought a grin to my face. I walked over to a portrait of, ironically, a man painting a picture and asked him, "Excuse me, sir?"

The man looked towards me and seemed to finally realize I was there, "Oh, hello my dear! Who might you be?"

I figured it wouldn't hurt to give my own name, it's not like anyone would know it. "I'm Daniella Abby, and I'm looking for the headmaster. Could you tell me where he could be?"

"Well I should think the headmasters office!"

I gave a small smile to hide my annoyance, "Yes I thought so as well. But you see I don't know where the headmasters office is and I was hoping you could help me."

"Of course, of course! The office is…" he gave me the directions to the office and I politely thanked him.

But naturally when I made it to the statue guarding the office I realized I didn't have the password. I huffed and started naming off random candies, hoping one of them would be the right one.

When I said Lemon Drops a voice startled me, "Those are my favorite."

I jumped and looked over to see a rather old man in magenta robes with silver moons stitched all over them. I surveyed him some more and saw he had a long, slightly greying, auburn beard, the same color as his hair. I looked at the mans twinkling blue eyes and saw a pair of half-moon spectacles sitting on the bridge of his nose. I gaped slightly when I realized it was Albus Dumbledore. A young Albus Dumbledore.

"Are you in need of the headmaster?" he asked.

I nodded my head, unable to speak. When I fully processed what he said, I realized he wasn't talking about himself. He walked up next to me and spoke the password, but I was too confused to pay attention to what it was.

He led me up the spiraling steps and into the office. Portraits along the wall turned their attention to us as we walked through the door. Sitting behind the large desk was a nearly balding man, scratching away at a piece of parchment with a quill. I realized that I may be in Harry Potters world, but not his time. If I was right them this was Armando Dippet.

Dumbledore lightly cleared his throat and the man looked up. He set his quill down and said with a smile, "Albus! What brings you here?"

Dumbledore moved aside to reveal me awkwardly standing behind him. He gestured to me, "I found this young lady standing outside, trying to get into your office."

The man behind the desk then began to closely examine me. It made me want to squirm but I held my ground and returned the stare. "Hello young lady. I am Headmaster Armando Dippet and this here," he gestured towards Dumbledore, "Is Albus Dumbledore" he then leaned towards me, "and who would you be?"

I flicked my eyes up to Dumbledore and saw he was looking at me just as curiously. I quickly looked back to the ground because I knew he could look into people's minds. "My name is Danielle Abby."

"Well miss Abby," Dippet was the one who spoke, "why did you need to see me?"

Think Danielle, think! "Well…" coming up with an idea I made a pitiful sniffling noise and rubbed at my nose. "I'm rather lost you see." I made my voice thick, as if I was holding back tears. "And I don't know what to do!" I allowed my fake tears to fall and called it a success when I felt Dumbledore take me gently by the shoulders and sit me down in a chair. He handed me a handkerchief and I uttered a small "thank you" as I blew my nose.

When I seemed to have calmed down enough to speak Dumbledore spoke in a gentle voice, "Why are you lost miss Abby? It would help if you could start from the beginning."

I nodded and told them nothing but lies. "I'm from America you see." Maybe not all lies, "I lived with my mother and father. But at some point, when I was young, my father started acting different. He started drinking and became abusive towards my mother and I." I made sure to have my voice crack at the word abusive. "I don't know why he was like that." I shook my head and looked at the professors with tears in my eyes, "Why was he like that?"

Dumbledore patted my shoulder, "Please continue, my dear."

I nodded and did as he said, "One night a couple weeks ago my mother woke me up in the middle of the night and told me to quickly pack anything I would need. I did as she said and we quickly left the house and took the next flight here to Britain. I understand now what I didn't then," I looked up at Dumbledores twinkling eyes before looking down at my lap, "that my mother had had enough of my fathers actions and left him. Taking me with."

I gave a nostalgic smile, as if thinking of a fond memory. Which was hard because i don't really have and fond memories. "Everything was going great you know? We lived in a small apartment in London, my mom got a job and everything was perfect. Nobody was there to hurt us." I dropped the smile and picked up my breathing, "But he found us. I don't know how, but my father found us. He burst through the front door one day, totally drunk, and when he saw us he started yelling and swearing. I had screamed while my mother fought back against my father," I shook my head, "but he didn't like that. He went into the kitchen and came back out with a knife and…and…"

I allowed myself to believe the story was true, and it caused me to choke up and begin crying again. But I knew it was all fake so I pulled myself together and continued, "He killed her. He killed her!" I yelled out in anguish and curled into myself, letting the tears fall as if they were real.

"Everything is alright, my dear. He is gone now he can't hurt you." Dumb,endorse rubbed soothing circles on my back as I nodded in acknowledgment and lifted my head from my knees, wiping the tears away from my eyes.

"After he killed my mother I ran from the apartment. I kept running and never looked back. That was about a week ago. Ever since then I had been living on the streets until my father had somehow found me again. He chased me through the alleys, and I was desperate to get away from him. The next thing I know I'm at your front gates."

I sat there and waited for one of them to say something. It was Dippet who said anything first, "You say you just appeared at the gates?"

I nodded, "Yea."

Dumbledore was petting his beard and sounded thoughtful, "It seems to me you apparated."

I looked at him with confusion, "What's apparate?"

His eyebrows raised with surprise, "You do not know what apparition is?"

"Isn't that like a ghost?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "No, my dear. Apparition is a form of teleportation."

I shook my head at him, as if I didn't already know why apparition was, "Teleportation isn't possible, sir."

Dumbledore and Dippet shared a glance. "Then how do you believe you got here, miss Abby?" Dippet said.

I shrugged innocently, "I'm not sure sir."

"My dear," I looked at Dumbledore, "you used magic."

I looked at him like he was crazy, "Mr. Dumbledore, magic isn't real." I said it slowly as of I actually believed it wasn't real.

"Has anything ever happened around you that you couldn't explain?"

I shook my head again, "No, this was the first time."

Dumbledore seemed to think of something and took out polished stick from inside his robe. He waved it at me and I realized it wasn't a stick, it was his wand. I suddenly began glowing a light blue color until it faded into my skin. I looked at Dumbledore with confusion and saw him smiling at me with his twinkling blue eyes. "It seems my dear that you really do have magic, and quite a bit of it too. I'm surprised you've never done any accidental magic before!"

My jaw dropped, "Me? Magic?! Don't be silly, magic doesn't exist!" Dumbledore pointed his wand at a quill on Dippets desk and I watched as it transformed into a glass rose. He picked it up and handed it to me.

Taking it I inspected the detail in the rose and dropped it when it suddenly turned into a quill again. I looked at the feather sitting innocently on the floor, and switched my gaze into the two elderly men before me. "But…that's not possible. How…?"

"Miss Abby," I looked at Dippet. "this all must be quite a shock for you, and it may be best if you were to get some rest."

I nodded my head, dumbfounded that I had seen magic done right in front of me. "Seeing as summer has just begun, I believe it would be alright for you to sleep up in one of the dorms."

I paid no attention as Dumbledore led me out of the office and through the twisting hallways. We reached a painting of a fat lady and Dumbledore spoke, "Hippogriff Hooves." The portrait swung open and Dumbledore turned to me. "These are the Griffindor common rooms. When you enter go up the staircase on the left and that will lead you up to the girls dormitories."** (AN: Idk if it's the left but whatever).**

I thanked him and I entered the common room. I paid no tent ion as the portrait shut behind me. I looked around and saw the room was decked in reds and golds. I went up the staircase and looked down the hallway lined with doors. I chose one and entered to find four, four-poster beds circled throughout the room. Between each bed was a window.

I saw a pair of clothes folded on one of the beds and realized they were pajamas. I smiled and quickly threw them on and jumped onto one of the softest beds I've ever had the pleasure to lay on. I took a deep breath and smiled. I was actually in the Harry Potter world, and thankfully they had believed me when I told them that story.

I felt a little bad for lying but I didn't feel comfortable saying I was from another universe and in that universe there was a book that was set in the future. Especially with Dumbledore in the room. I read some fanfics with him being all manipulative, and whether or not that was true I don't know. He might have wanted me to tell him the information from the book. How was I supposed to tell them Tom Riddle was going to be a dark lord!

I sat up with a gasp _Am I in Riddles time? _I laid back onto the bed and thought. _It's possible I suppose. Dumbledore does look younger and he's not the headmaster. But why would I have been sent to his time and not Harrys?_ I closed my eyes and began falling asleep. _I can think about it tomorrow._


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up to a tickling sensation in my ear. I groggily swatted at the air next to my ear and closed my eyes, intent on falling back asleep, when the sensation came again. When I went to bat at the air again this time I actually hit something. I opened my eyes to see Basil looking back at me. Leisurely flicking her tongue.

"Sorry Basil." I yawned widely before looking back at her. "I kinda forgot about you yesterday." I furrowed my brows in confusion, "Weren't you with me yesterday?" She flicked out her tongue once. I had always figured that meant yes. "Why didn't they notice you? Were you hiding under my shirt or something?" another flick.

I nodded my head, "Probably for the best. I don't know what they would have done of they knew about you." Standing from the bed I stretched. Once I heard a satisfying crack from my spine I relaxed and looked to find a pair of clothes folded at the end of the bed.

I picked them up and found them to be some kind of robes. _These must be those wizarding robes they're always wearing._ I looked at the pants to find they weren't pants at all, but a skirt. _Yea, that's not gonna happen._

I looked around the room, hoping to find at least my pants from yesterday, but they were nowhere to be found. _I swear I put them right there when I changed last night where…?_ My thought trailed off as an idea to where my clothes might be came to mind. "Elf?"

After a few moments nothing happened, but a sudden _pop_ to my left had me jumping and spinning to see one of the strangest creatures I have ever seen. It was short, with large bat like ears, and bulbous green eyes staring right at me. "What can Hatty bes doing for Hogwarts guest?"

Snapping my gaping mouth shut I cleared my throat, "Hello, Hatty. Um, do you know where the clothes I was wearing yesterday have gone off to?"

"Oh! Yes guest mistress, they be taken for cleaning." Hatty responded eagerly.

"I see. Then do you think," I held up the skirt, "you could bring me a pair of pants?"

Hatty seemed shocked that I wouldn't want to wear the skirt. "Does guest mistress not like the skirt?"

I shook my head, "It's not the skirt itself. I just don't like to wear skirts at all."

"Then Hatty shall get some pants! Yes she will!" And with that she popped out. Only to pop right back with a pair of black pants.

I took them from her with a smile, "Thank you Hatty." I soon felt guilt when I saw her eyes start welling up with tears. I dropped the pants and kneeled down in front of her. I took her hands in mine and looked at her, "Hatty what's wrong?! Is it something I said?"

The fact that I was on the floor and holding her hands seemed to horrify her into bursting into loud wails. I dropped her hands in shock and started to shake my hands out in front of me. "No, no Hatty, stop crying!"

Thankfully she stopped wailing but her eyes were still glassy, "Nobody has ever thanked Hatty before!" When I saw her about to start crying again I quickly stopped her. "None of that crying now Hatty." My voice was stern and it made her look up at me. "You mustn't cry. Don't ever cry for something as small as that. It will make you look weak. You have to be the strong house-elf I know you are!"

My words registered with Hatty because she stood straighter and her tears disappeared. "Thank yous guest mistress! If you be needing anything, I be willing to help!" And with that she popped away, this time she didn't come back.

I stood up from the ground and happily changed out of the pj's and into the robes. I allowed Basil to hide up my sleeve and wrap around my arm, hidden and out of sight. I left the dormitories and left the common room to find Dumbledore waiting behind the portrait.

I stumbled up to Dumbledore. "Sorry Mr. Dumbledore. I hope you weren't waiting too long."

Dumbledore just smiled jovially, "Not at all! I just came up here to come and bring you up to the headmasters office. We have much more to discuss."

I followed him back up to the office. Dippet was sitting behind the desk, just like yesterday. I sat in the chair across from him and Dumbledore stood next to the desk. Once we were situated in the office Dippet clapped his hands together. "As we found out yesterday, you are a witch. But it seems that because you never knew you never went to school so you don't know how to control, or use it." I nodded my head. I still couldn't believe they thought I was a witch. I wasn't a witch before so why would I be one now?

Dippet continued speaking, "If you would like, you could go to school here at Hogwarts." A large, excited smile broke out on my face, "Really? You mean it?!"

Dippet nodded and returned the smile, "I meant every word miss Abby!" Dumbledore took over from here, "What you should know, my dear, is that here at Hogwarts the students are put into four houses. The Hufflepuff house is the house of the hard-working, loyal, and friendly. The Gryffindor house is the house of the courageous and chivalrous. The Ravenclaw house is the house known for its wisdom, wit, and their creativity. The Slytherin house is known for its cunning and ambition."

I nodded as though the information was new to me. "So how are the students put into the houses?"

"I'm glad you asked my dear." Walking up to the shelves on the other side of the desk, Dumbledore reached up and took down a dusty looking hat. He stood in front of me and held up the hat. "This is the Sorting Hat. He will be put onto your head and…well, you'll see." and with that he dropped the hat onto my head. The hat sunk over my eyes, blocking out the rest of the office.

_Well, well what have we here?_ I jumped at the sudden voice echoing throughout my head.

_I'm exactly who I said I was, Danielle Abby._ My voice was calm as I spoke with the hat.

The hat chuckled _That was not quite what I meant, traveler. You lied to both the headmaster and Dumbledore. Very cunning of you, very Slytherin._

_No! Not Slytherin!_

_And why not? You would do pretty well in Slytherin._

_I can't be in Slytherin! If I am Dumbledore would watch me like a hawk and I don't want that! Can't you put me in, like, Hufflepuff?_

_Hufflepuff? Nonsense, you would stick out like a sore thumb in Hufflepuff. Mmm… Hufflepuff is out…Ravenclaw would fit you perfectly, but you don't seem to have the same drive for wisdom and school-work. You have the cunning and ambition of a Slytherin. But your courage and bravery outweigh the ambition… the hat then made a thoughtful noise._

_Please choose Hufflepuff…_Please_ choose Hufflepuff. _I mumbled in my head. I wondered if this was what Harry felt like when he was sorted.

_Ah yes, Harry Potter. It would seem you know a lot about future events, hmm?_

_You mustn't tell anyone!_ I was worried he might tell someone what he had seen in mind.

_Everything will be strictly between me and you. Now! I know exactly where to put you._ I heard an audible tearing noise and the voice from inside of my head shout aloud to the room, "GRYFFINDOR!"

_That's not Hufflepuff! _I heard him chuckle as he was taken off of my head. The office came into view once again and I saw Dumbledore smiling down at me. "Wonderful! A good house, Gryffindor. I'm the Gryffindor head of house, if you need anything just come to me."

I nodded at him and smiled, making sure I looked to the left of his head instead of directly into his eyes.

I turned to look at Dippet, "So what will I do now?"

"Well we should probably see what year you will be in. How old are you?"

"I'm fifteen." I nodded with finality.

"I see." Dippet rubbed his chin. "You cannot be put with the fifth years until you know the first through fourth year material."

I raised my hand, "I could study the material? I could go to the library or something and look through the course books. I wouldn't be able to actually practice the spells without a wand though." At the last sentence I sheepishly scratched the back of my head.

Dippets expression lit up, "Indeed you could! For this summer, and this summer only," he looked at me sternly, "You can study here at Hogwarts, and when the students come back you can join them." He became thoughtful, "About the wand however…it would seem a trip to Diagon Alley is in order."

I adopted a confused expression. I technically wasn't supposed to know what Diagon Alley was anyway. "Where?"

Dippet looked at me strangely until he realized that I wouldn't know what Diagon Alley was. "Ah! Well, Dumbledore here can show you around." He then changed the subject, "As for your studies here, you can study with the teachers that are here during the week, and the class electives you can be helped with on weekends, maybe some evenings as well."

I couldn't contain my excitement that I was actually going to be learning magic, "Thank you so much! I'm grateful, really! But if the teachers don't want to teach me then they don't have to."

Dippet waved my last sentence off, "Nonsense, they will teach you what you need to know. And it will help you get to know them." He clapped and gestured to Dumbledore. "Albus, if you would do the honors of bringing miss Abby to Diagon I will be grateful."

"It would be a pleasure." Dumbledores eyes continued their merry twinkling. "And I shall bring her once she gets properly dressed."

I blinked and looked down at my pants before looking back up at Dumbledore, "But sir! Even when I was little I never really wore skirts. Back in America it was acceptable." I gave him the best puppy dog eyes I could muster, "Can I not wear them, please?"

I'm pretty sure I saw Dumbledore caving from the look. It always worked, it was how I got money and other necessities after all. "I don't see why not. It is the umber after all."

I stood from my chair with a thank you and followed him from the office. Winding through the corridors I paid as much attention as possible to where we were walking. It wasn't hard because everything absolutely fascinated me. And I knew that because of that I would remember it much easier. I have something similar to an eidetic memory, but I will only remember the information if I find it interesting or fascinating. Tell me to memorize every corner of Hogwarts and I can do it, no problem. Tell me to remember Pythagorean theorem? Pfft, unlikely. **(AN: for all I know that really is an eidetic memory, but idk.)**

We made it to Hogwarts gates and Dumbledore produced a bright yellow sock with blue stars from inside of his robes. He held it out to and I looked at it with trepidation before looking up at Dumbledore. He noticed my reaction and wiggled the sock, "Nothing to worry about my dear! Just grab on tight and don't let go."

I pinched the sock between my fingers. As soon as I did I felt a hook like sensation tugging at my nasal. The world around me became a blur of colors until it all suddenly stopped and I landed on the ground in a heap. I stood up from the ground, rolling my shoulders to rid the pain. When I was fully up I forgot all of my pain in an instant once I took in my surroundings.

It was magical, for lack of a better word. The cobblestone streets were lined with colorful shops of various names. Various objects were flying about. Children were running about as their parent tried to keep up. My mouth had dropped open as I tried to take everything in all at once.

One particular building caught my eye however. It was very large and white. The only building I knew with that description was Gringotts. I was proved right when Dumbledore started leading me over towards it. "Our first stop is Gringotts bank." We walked up the steps and two goblins, one stationed on either side of the doors, bowed to us. I gave a small bow back. The action seemed to surprise them, along with Dumbledore.

I looked up at the doors and saw words engraved there:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

I smiled at their witty threat, but I couldn't appreciate it for much longer as Dumbledore led me further into the bank. We were walking passed the long line of goblins when Dumbledore leaned further towards me, "The creatures your seeing are called goblins. They can be very nasty creatures, and it would be wise not to anger them." He murmured to me. I nodded back.

We made it to the banks goblin teller. He seemed pretty old with long, spindly fingers and pointy teeth. He was writing something on the paper in front of him, paying no attention to either of them. Dumbledore politely cleared his throat but the goblin either didn't hear him or ignored him. Most likely the latter.

I rolled my eyes at Dumbledores politeness and stepped forward, "Excuse me, sir. But I would really appreciate it if you could pause with what you were doing and help us." my voice was sickly sweet, and full of fake politeness. Dumbledore grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back to his side.

I didn't care because the goblin did look up from his desk and started staring me down. Unfazed I returned the stare. As time went on the noises around me seemed to stop and it was just me and the goblin. My eyes were starting to feel dry and irritated but I wouldn't give up. The goblins stare seemed to suddenly lessen and he looked at me appraisingly, before looking at Dumbledore with an irritated expression.

The noise of the bank returned to me and I tuned out Dumbledores conversation with the goblin. I saw some of the other goblins looking at me but they looked away when I saw the stares.

I heard Dumbledore say my name and I turned back to look at him. There was a goblin standing in front of us, a key in hand. "Miss Abby if you would please follow."

"Oh! Oh no thank you Mr. Dumbledore. I would much rather stay out here. You won't be long right?" I gave him an expression to express how much I wanted to stay. It's not like I'll need to come back anytime soon.

Dumbledore once again relented under my stare. "Alright, my dear. I'll be back in a moment." He left with the goblin. _He only trusts me because I'm a Gryffindor._

I went up to the teller. "Excuse me again sir." This time I was actually polite, "but is there a way to check bloodlines?" I've always wanted to see my ancestry. The teller didn't answer but he called over another goblin and started whispering into his ear. The goblin ran off and I stood there patiently waiting.

Another goblin soon came up and bowed to me, concealing his surprise when I bowed back. "Hookfang will see you." The goblin started walking off and I followed him until we reached a door with a plaque clearly labelled _Hookfang_. And underneath that plaque was another that read _Blood lines & heritage._

The goblin knocked on the door before leaving. I shrugged and opened the door. "Hello?" I called.

"Enter Miss…?"

"Abby. Danielle Abby." _Bond. James Bond._

"And you have come because you wish to learn your lineage? Does your family not have the information you wanted?" The goblin sneered at me.

Unfazed I sat in the chair across Hookfang's desk. "Actually my family is dead." I wanted to say something about me being from another universe, but I wasn't sure if he would believe me. "I would like this to be quick please, because I don't know how long Dumbledore will be."

Hookfang nodded and pulled out a sheet of parchment and what looked like a letter opener. He laid the letter opener on the parchment and pushed the objects towards me. I stood up in front of his desk and took the letter opener. I looked at him for instruction. "Three drops of your blood will suffice."

I pressed the letter opener to my finger and cut it. Used to pain worse than that I didn't even flinch and I allowed three drops to fall onto the paper. Right after the cut healed itself and looked as though it was never there. The blood soaked into the paper. It was blank at first until words slowly started webbing over the page. My eyebrows rose higher as I read further.

_Danielle Rose Abby-Morrickson:_

_Parents: Unknown_

_Heiress to the Ancient and noble house of Morrickson_

_Magical heiress to the ancient and noble house of Slytherin._

_Magical heiress to the ancient and noble house of Ravenclaw._

_Vaults:_

_Morrickson:_

_315: trust vault_

_3,492,109 galleons; 4,627 knuts; 687 sickles_

_482: family vault_

_8,213,056 galleons; 8,263 knuts; 444 sickles_

_611: heirloom vault._

_Slytherin:_

_Vault 108:_

_15,863,193 galleons; 9,163 knuts; 930 sickles_

_Vault 109: heirloom vault (inaccessible)_

_Ravenclaw:_

_Vault 110:_

_13,618,495 galleons; 1973 knuts; 5,381 sickles_

_Vault 111: heirloom vault (inaccessible)_

_Abilities:_

_Animagus_

_Eidetic memory_

_Natural Occlumens_

_Parseltongue_

I was looking at the paper as if everything on there was a lie. I looked up from the paper to the goblin. Then to the paper. Then back to the goblin and shook my head. I started jabbing my finger at the paper. "What is this? What is this?! Magical heir! Slytherin? Ravenclaw?! And who are the Morrickons?!" I started to slightly hyperventilate and collapsed into the chair behind me.

The goblin reached forward and drew the paper towards him. He read the paper silently and nodded. His calm demeanor relaxed me enough to make me stop hyperventilating.

"The Ancient and noble house of Morrickson was a pure-blooded house much like the Malfoys. The line disappeared some decades ago and nobody knows what happened to them."

"Being a magical heiress means you were chosen by magic to become the heir of the houses Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Because you are not the blood heir you are unable to enter the heirloom cults, but you can go into the main vaults."

I nodded my head and took a deep breath. I couldn't believe that I was an heiress. Not just to an old pure-blood line, but to Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Magical or not it doesn't matter. I cleared my throat, "Will I need to know anything else about being the heiress to these lines?"

"The Slytherin and Ravenclaw lines information will be kept for their heirs. But for the Morrickson line you will need to know about the properties, and your investments. You will get the lordship ring when you come of age, but for now you can have the heir ring. It will allow you to enter the trust vault."

I nodded again, "So how can I get the ring?"

Opening a drawer in his desk, Hookfang took out a long black box and set it at the edge of the desk. He took out a dagger this time and handed it to me. "Make a slash across your palm and lay it onto the box."

Accepting the dagger I cut my palm and set it on the box as Hookfang instructed. I felt a sting on my cut, but when I tried to pull away my hand was stuck to the box. I waited for the stinging to go away before I was able to take away my hand. I saw my cut had been healed, and when I looked up Hookfang had opened the box to reveal three different rings.

The ring on the left was a bronze ring with an eagle in mid flight, with the background of a blue shield. _That must be Ravenclaws._ On the right was a ring with a silver band and a snake wrapped around a green shield. _Slytherins_. The ring in the middle was a white band engraved with a snarling black wolf. _Morrickson_.

Hookfang pointed to Ravenclaws ring. "that shall go onto your pointer finger on your right hand." I picked up the ring and placed it on my finger. The ring shrunk until it fit snugly around my finger. "The Slytherin ring shall go on the middle finger of your left hand." Slytherins ring adjusted to my fingers size, the same as Ravenclaws. "The Morrickson ring shall go on your ring finger of your right hand." I picked up the ring and carefully slid it onto the designated finger. It fit like a glove.

"Now that you have accepted the rings your abilities should start to show themselves. When or how quickly I'm not sure." Hookfang said.

Hookfang put the box away and then took out a small stack of papers. "These are the papers that list everything you will need to know when dealing with the Morrickson vaults. Anything else you will need to know will be found in either the family vault or the trust vault."

I accepted the paper and shoved it into a convenient pocket in my robe. "Is there any way for me to take money out of the trust fund without actually going down there? Like maybe a bag, or a card that can draw the money directly from the vault?"

Hookfang nodded, "There are bags designed for that purpose. But it will cost about fifty galleons. Should you want to put protections on it it will cost an extra one hundred galleons." I looked at the sheet of paper that listed the amount of galleons I had access to and nodded firmly. "I'll take one of the bags, along with the protections."

Hookfang took note of my urgency, and and five minutes later a bag connected to the Morrickson trust vault was in my hands. It was protected from theft, and anyone not of Morrickson blood would be unable to take anything from the bag.

When I left the room I made sure the rings were concealed exactly as Hookfang instructed. My bag was hidden up my sleeve along with Basil and I quickly walked back to the main room of tellers. I saw Dumbledore looking around and cursed before shouting out his name.

He turned around and finally spotted me. A look of relief seemed to come over his features, but it was replaced with a stern one. "Miss Abby I have been looking for you for a good ten minutes. Where have you been?"

I was running up to Dumbledore and started to explain, "Sorry Mr. Dumbledore, but I saw something and–" I was cut off by another body slamming into mine. The collision caused us both to fall to the ground exclamations of surprise.

We were on the ground in a tangle of limbs before I finally unhooked myself from them and scrambled to my feet. The person who I ran into got up as well. He–for it was a he–had long white blonde hair that reached his shoulders, and when he finished brushing off his fancy robes he looked up at me with his bluish-grey eyes and went to sneer, but once he made eye contact all traces of the sneer faded.

I started apologizing at first, "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have been running like that. But in all fairness you should have noticed me." My words snapped him out of his daze and he sneered at me; although it lacked any bite. "Watch where you're going, mudblood." and with that he turned on his heel and continued what he was doing.

I shook my head _If only he knew who he just called a mudblood._

I made it to Dumbledore and I saw him looking after the boy I ran into. He looked down at me and smiled, "That was one of the Slytherin students from Hogwarts. His name is Abraxas Malfoy."

He started walking out of the bank and I trailed behind him. "Sir, what's a mudblood?"

Dumbledore looked at me, the twinkle was missing from his eyes, "That is a derogatory statement used towards muggle-borns."

I nodded and made an noise of understanding before asking another question one would have to if they were clueless. I really hated acting this way. "What's a muggle-born?" The twinkle seemed to return to Dumbledores eyes as he explained to me what a muggle was. And the difference between a muggle-born, a half-blood, and a pure-blood.

When he finally stopped talking we were standing in front of an old shop. Looking up at the sign I saw the word "Ollivanders". It didn't take a genius to realize I was about to get my wand, and I couldn't wait.

Opening the door we were greeted by the many thin, dusty boxes crammed onto shelves. The air I the room however seemed very warm and inviting. I was looking around when a voice, seemingly from nowhere, spoke, "Good afternoon."

I jumped and spun to see an old man looking at me with foggy eyes. He inspected me for awhile until his brows furrowed ever so slightly. At that moment he turned to Dumbledore. "Albus Dumbledore," his voice was airy as he spoke, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Albus smiled back at the man, "Well Ollivander. I have come here with miss Danielle Abby so she might find her first wand."

Ollivander looked back to me. "First wand?"

I smiled back, "My reasons are my own. If you don't mind."

Ollivander nodded his head slowly and seemed to be looking through me. He asked me, "Which is your wand arm?"

"Er, I'm right handed?"

"Yes good, good. Now hold out your arm."

I stuck my right arm out and a tape measure suddenly started measuring every inch of my body. Literally every inch. Even my nose! "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, miss Abby. We use unicorn hairs, Phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, or dragons, or phoenixs are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizards wand." **(AN: Taken from Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.)**

As he was saying this he was flitting through the shelves until he seemed to come to a decision. "Ah, holly wood and unicorn hair, good with charms." I took the wand and gave it a casual flick. One of the chairs in the shop suddenly burst into flame. Fortunately Dumbledore was quick to put it out.

Next I tried a birch wood wand with a dragon heartstrings core, but that too was quickly replaced. Followed by another wand after that, and another after that. After about ten minutes of this Dumbledore had finally sat down and Ollivander came back with another wand.

He opened the box and handed the beautifully designed wand towards me. "Ash wood, 14 inches. The core is most unusual however. It's the feather of a shadow Phoenix that was gifted to my many-greats-grandfather." I took the wand by the handle and it seemed as though I found something I never knew I was missing. I flicked the wand and flames burst from the wand. It took the form of a Phoenix and flew around the room once before exploding out, much like a firework.

I looked at Ollivander, "This one."

Dumbledore paid Ollivander nine galleons before we left the store. I would have to come back another time to get one of those wand holsters.

I looked up from my examination of the wand and thanked Dumbledore. "Thank you for buying this for me sir."

"Oh don't mention it my dear. Besides the money is part of the school funds." Dumbledore produced a pouch from the folds of his robes. "This will be the money you use for when you go to school. Now," Dumbledore clapped his hands together. "we should probably get you a new outfit. You only game with the one and I think it would be best to at least get you another." I relented, as long as I chose the outfit.

When we left the clothing store I had gained another set of casual dark blue robes and a silk red nightgown. Dumbledore said we could worry about getting more clothes as the school year got closer.

When I saw the yellow sock I bit back a groan. The sensation of traveling was just as horrible, but this I at least landed on my feet before toppling over onto the ground again.

I lost Dumbledore halfway up to the Gryffindor rooms, but I didn't mind. I entered the portrait hole and went up to the dormitories. I sat at the same bed as the other night and set my money pouch onto the bed, along with the papers from Gringotts, and Basil slithered out and curled up onto one of the pillows.

I changed into the nightgown and sat cross-legged on the bed. I began sifting through the papers. I had finished reading about the four different properties I now own, and I was about to move on to my investment when Hatty popped into the room.

Her sudden appearance made me jump. I quickly put a hand to my chest to try and slow my rapidly beating heart. "Oh Hatty, it's just you. You startled me." I shook my head, "What was it you needed?" I saw her holding a plate of mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and carrots. The food smelled absolutely heavenly, and when I told her that she looked about ready to cry again, but she seemed to remember my words from earlier and all she did was sniff as she quickly bowed before popping back out.

Once I finished the food the plate it had been on disappeared. I set the papers on the desk. Deciding they can wait for tomorrow. I called Hatty back in and told her, "Hatty these papers," I pointed to the papers from the bank, "are very important. I'm trusting you to make sure nobody takes them alright?"

Hatty happily nodded her head, "Of course guest mistress! Hatty be watching the important papers for you, she will!"

I smiled, "Thanks Hatty." I closed the bed curtains and laid my head on the pillow next to Basil's. The tell tail pop signaling Hattys exit. _"~Goodnight Basil~"_ I drifted off to sleep. Unknown to me that I had just spoken parseltongue.


	4. Chapter 4

_"~Parseltongue~"_

* * *

><p>I entered the great hall to see that all of the teachers had made it there before me. When Dippet saw me he stood from his chair, gaining the attention of the other teachers. "Miss Abby!" The rest of the teachers finally seemed to notice me.<p>

"Let me introduce you to your teachers for the summer." He raised his hand over Dumbledore, "You have already met professor Dumbledore. He will be your transfiguration teacher." As he went on the only teachers I recognized was Dumbledore and Slughorn. The name Kettleburn was familiar but he wasn't in the books or movie.

During breakfast I was given my schedule for the week. If I thought school was bad then this was worse. The core classes were during the week, and then I had the elective classes on the weekends. _At least my weekends are free_.

_Monday:_

_7:30-9:00 Transfiguration_

_9:10-10:30 Charms_

_10:40-12:00 Arithmacy_

_12:10-1:30 Lunch_

_1:40-3:00 Herbology_

_Tuesday:_

_7:30-9:00 Potions_

_9:10-10:30 DADA_

_10:40-12:00 Care of Magical Creatures_

_12:10-1:30 Lunch_

_1:40-3:00 History of Magic_

_(12:00-1:30) Astronomy_

_Wednesday:_

_7:30-9:00 Transfiguration_

_9:10-10:30 Charms_

_10:40-12:00 Ancient Runes_

_12:10-1:30 Lunch_

_1:40-3:00 Herbology_

_Thursday:_

_7:30-9:00 Potions_

_9:10-10:30 Defense Against the Dark Arts_

_10:40-12:00 Muggle Studies_

_12:10-1:30 Lunch_

_1:40-3:00 History of Magic_

_(12:00-1:30) Astronomy_

_Friday:_

_7:30-9:00 Transfiguration_

_9:10-10:30 Charms_

_10:40-12:00 Divination_

_12:10-1:30 Lunch_

_1:40-3:00 Herbology_

They gave me every single class available. Why would I need to know Muggle Studies? I suppose I could use divination as an excuse for anything I accidentally slip about the future. I was most excited about Care though.

"You can start classes tomorrow. For today you will be shown around the castle so you will know where your classes will be." Dippet told me. Dumbledore rose from his chair and beckoned me to do the same. He led me throughout the castle and every time we reached one of the classrooms the teacher was already there. I figured they had left the great hall so they could get to the rooms.

We finished with the transfiguration get classroom. When we got there Dumbledore left me to my own devices. At first I didn't know what to do. You would think there would be tons of things to do when you go to Hogwarts but I couldn't think of one. I couldn't go to Hogsmead or Diagon because it was possible that somebody would realize I was missing. I haven't been taught how to fly a broom, and the Forbbiden Forest had the same circumstances as Hogsmead. I suddenly got a brilliant idea…and I just used the word brilliant. _sigh, brilliant._

I raced up the stairs and made it to the Gryffindor common room. When I got up to the dormitories I called for Hatty. "What can Hatty be doing for guest mistress?"

I opened my mouth to give my request but quickly snapped it shut. I narrowed my eyes in thought, "Why do you call me guest mistress?"

"Because you be's a guest at Hoggywarts!" She claimed excitedly.

I nodded, "I see. But I'm not really a guest anymore." I pointed out.

Hatty looked at me in confusion. "You'd not a guest?"

"Nope." I claimed proudly, "I am officially a student, starting tomorrow." The news cleared Hatty's confusion and she began bouncing about the room. I laughed at her antics. "Hatty come here." the humor was heard in my voice. She immediately came to my side and looked at me for instruction. "Because I'm not a guest you will have to call me something else."

I rubbed my chin in thought, "Well I suppose you can call me Danielle. It is my name after all."

Hatty seemed horrified that I had just asked her to address me by me, "Hatty can't call mistress by her name! No she can't!"

"Well you can't go around calling me mistress! Danielle will do fine."

But Hatty was stubborn "You is mistress Abby and Hatty will call you as such." she bobbed her head as if that was that. But I wasn't giving up.

"Could you at least call me miss? Like miss Abby? Or miss Danielle?" I personally didn't care for the latter, but she didn't need to know.

I made it through her stubbornness. "Hatty will call you Miss Abby." I smiled at her in thanks. "I have one last request."

"Of course Miss Abby!" All traces of the previous conversation gone. Except for my new title.

"Do you think you could take me to the kitchens?"

"Yes she could!" Hatty took my hand in hers and in the blink of an eye we were in the kitchens. I was surrounded by many other house-elves, and our sudden appearance startled them. Me more so than Hatty. When they saw me they grew instantly silent for about two seconds before they burst into excited chatter. The noise level was quite loud because they were all trying to talk to me at once.

A sudden bang went off next to me. It silenced all of the elves and we all turned to see Hatty standing on a table with her fingers in the snapping position. I realized she was the one to cause the bang and I was never so grateful for Hatty's help.

"You's be making Miss Abby uncomfortable!" The elves all looked to see my uncomfortable stance and they all backed down and returned to their business. Their voices a little more subdued than before.

Hatty ushered me into a nearby chair and set a plate down in front of me. Just a turkey sandwich, some chips, and some orange looking drink. I looked at Hatty, "You wouldn't happen to have any fruit would you?" Hatty snapped her fingers and a bowl of fruit appeared next to my plate. "And, erm…" I straightened my arm and placed my hand on the table top. With a hiss Basil slowly slithered out of my sleeve.

Her sudden presence scared house-elves but I was quick to reassure them. "Don't worry she's harmless! I've had her since I was twelve and she's very dear to me." I looked back at Hatty when the other elves returned to their work, still throwing cautious glances at Basil.

"Do you have any mice or something she could eat?" Hatty was looking at Basil just as warily but nodded her head. She popped away for a few moments before returning with a box. She set it on the table in front of me quickly. "Will you's be needing anything else?"

"No. Thank you Hatty." I gave her a sincere smile. My actions must have shocked the elves because they went silent again and were staring at me in awe. I awkwardly cleared my throat and reached for the box. The house-elves all returned to their work by the time I opened the box to reveal two mice.

I set one in the table and trapped it by its tail. Basil slowly slithered up, and reared back before striking forward and biting into the mouse. Once she swallowed it we did the same with the other. She settled back with a satisfied hiss. _"~Thankss~"_

The sudden voice made me jump and I turned to look every which way, but I was the on,y other person in the room the house-elves glanced at me but otherwise continued. I sat back in my chair and saw Basil's head was raised from the tab,e and she was looking at me.

_"~You heard me~_" it wasn't a question.

I looked at her with wide eyes and nodded slowly. She cocked her head, _"~You spoke to me last night as well~" _I raised my brows at the information. I didn't understand why I was able to talk to her when I remembered something. I pulled the papers out of my robes and found the list of my abilities. "Parseltongue" clearly written as one of them. I looked at the other abilities and decided I would work on those later.

I was gonna speak back to her but I remembered the elves' reaction to just Basil and figured I would save it for later. I allowed her to return to my sleeve and I took a sip of the orange liquid and tried my hardest not to spit it back out. I thickly swallowed it and made a note not to have the drink again. By the taste of it it was pumpkin juice.

I finished the rest of my lunch without a problem and called for Hatty, letting her know I was going to leave the kitchens and wander around the castle. Before I left though I called for her, "If it's no trouble, I would really appreciate it if you gave me water, or even soda, instead of pumpkin juice next time." I gave a thankful smile and left the kitchens.

I memorized the way to the kitchens so I could get there next time without the need of Hatty. I decided that, because I don't really know what to do, I would try and find the library. Maybe I could find some books about the wizarding world to help me understand it more. Mostly on current times, because I don't want to have people talking about something that should really be common knowledge. Of course, I could play it off as being American.

I finally found it on the third floor after three hours of searching. When I entered I looked around at the huge library in amazement. It was larger than the library from where I was from!

I must have been gaping for too long because a clipped voice sounded from my left. "Well, are you just going to stand and gawk there all day or come in?" I turned to the voice and found a young woman giving me a piercing stare. I swallowed an angry retort, not wanting to get on her bad side incase I might need her help later on.

"Sorry madam it's just," I gestured to the library around me, "when I was in America I was never in a library as…" I tried to find the right word, "Extravagant? Amazing? I was just taking my time to admire it."

She nodded with an imperceptible smile and looked down to her desk. I was going to go deeper into the library but I had no idea where to start. I glanced at the librarian before deciding to ask her for help. It's worth a shot anyway.

I lightly cleared my throat to get her attention. "I know I'm probably bothering you, but do you think you could show me some books that could help me get acquainted with the current events?"

She looked at me over her glasses before giving a sharp nod and leading me through the library. She brought me to a section of wall and took down one of the books. She handed it to me. "This is the book you are looking for. Anything more recent and you can look through some newspapers I have near the front desk."

I took the book from her carefully and gently pet the cover. I always had a soft spot for books. They were my only escape from the orphanage. I looked up at the librarian and saw she had returned to her desk. I saw her looking at me before returning to her work. I'm pretty sure she approved of my actions towards the books.

I sat down at a nearby table and cracked open the leather-bound book. I was so immersed that I didn't know how much time had passed by until I heard someone clearing their throat from right next to me. I jumped and looked up to see the librarian looking down at me. "The library is closing."

I looked for a clock but when I couldn't find one I shrugged and closed the book, memorizing the page I was on. I saw that I was about two-thirds of the way done. Not wanting to stop reading I walked up to the front desk, "Would you mind if I borrowed the book?" I smiled when the librarian gave me the permission.

I left the library and rushed up to the Gryffindor common room. I made it up to the dormitories and set the book on the nightstand. I called for Hatty and asked her to get me the clothes I had been wearing when I got here.

She returned with my beat up black converse, my ripped black skinny jeans, a red tshirt, and a back hoodie. Basil was wrapped around my shoulders for everyone to see. I lifted my hood to make sure my face was hidden. It wouldn't do much good if anyone in the castle saw me, they would know who I was right away. I stuck my wand up my sleeve and put my money pouch in my hoodie pocket.

This was one of those moments when I wished I had a Marauders map of my own. I paused at the thought I should make one. _That would be so cool. _I filed the idea away for later.

I called for Hatty again. I felt kinda bad for using her so much, but I didn't have many options at the moment. "Do you think you could pop me over to Diagon Alley without anyone noticing?"

Hatty sadly shook her head, "The headmaster would notice Miss Abby."

I pursed my lips and wondered how else to get out of the castle undetected. I couldn't use the humpbacked witch because I didn't know where the passage even was. "Hatty do you know any ways to get out of the castle undetected?"

She thought for awhile and seemed to think of something, "The come-and-go room be's one way!" My eyes lit up. _Of course! Why didn't I think of that?_

"Could you take me there?" Hatty nodded her head, causing her ears to start flapping. She grabbed my hand and we popped away.

We reappeared in front of a large stretch of wall. The other side of the hallway he a portrait of trolls trying to do ballet. I couldn't remember the paintings name but I knew we were in the right place.

"Thanks Hatty. But you need to make sure this stays between you and me. You got that?" I looked at her sternly.

The nodded again, "Hatty gets that, yes she does!"

"You can't even tell the headmaster."

Hatty shook her head. "You's be the heir of the Slytherin and the Ravenclaw! Your word be higher than the headmasters." With that she popped away. How she knew I was the heir I didn't know.

I looked at the wall and began pacing. _I need a way to get out of the castle undetected… I need a way to get out of the castle undetected… I need a way to get out of the castle undetected…_

A door suddenly began appearing in the stonework of the wall. I grinned and opened the door. I was greeted with a basic room with shelves stuffed with books on one wall. A plush couch was next to the shelf should I choose to read one. But looking at the covers I saw they were all on apparating and there was no way I was about to try that.

I saw a bowl by a roaring fireplace and saw it was filled with a silvery powder. I looked between the powder and the powder before taking a handful and throwing it into the flames. I jumped back when the burst into green flames.

I held my hand towards the flame and waited for it to start burning, but nothing happened. My hand finally touched the flames and I drew it back quickly, expecting to be burned. I furrowed my brows when my hand turned out to be perfectly fine.

I stepped into the flames and found that the flames were perfectly harmless. Instead they kicked at my hands and left a small tickling sensation behind. I stood up straight and pronounced "Diagon Alley" as clear as possible.

I was soon sucked through the fire place. It felt like I was being stretched in every direction and I saw colors of all kinds quickly passing by me, making me even more dizzy. I was soon spat out, and from experience with the portkey-sock, I was able to stay, unsteadily, on my feet.

I looked around and found myself in some kind of pub. The rowdy customers told me that maybe the shops around the Alley haven't closed yet.

I left the pub and saw the sign saying it was the Leaky Cauldron. I smiled at the familiar name and turned to the Alley. The shops were still lit up with a few customers here and there.

I knew I was going to be getting a lot of stuff so I went to find maybe a bag of some sort. Looking around I finally found a shop with trunks displayed in the windows. I entered the shop and a ringing sound announced my presence. I saw no one in the shop so I started to look around. I had just found a beautiful black leather trunk when the shop keeper came out.

"Hello there?! Can I help you?" I turned around and saw an older man, with greying brown hair and kind green eyes, make his way over to me. He was looking as Basil with worry but otherwise came right up to me.

I smiled "Good evening sir. But I was wondering if I could get this trunk?"

"Of course you can! But it will be a little pricey." He warned me.

I smirked, "Price is no option. Don't worry." My response seemed to make him cheerier.

"Well, this particular trunk is made from dragon hide. It will be protected from certain spells, and is more expensive than other trunks. Is this the one you wanted?"

I placed my hand on the trunk, "This one. But is there a way to customize it?"

"Sure, sure!" He picked up the trunk and brought it to the counter. He took out some parchment and readied a quill. He looked up at me. "Do you know what you would like?"

I tilted my head. "I would like the lining to be red, And my initials, D.R.A., can be red as well. I want my initials near the handle while my family crest is put on the side."

He looked up to see my family crest and I allowed him to see the Morrickson heir ring. He looked like he recognized the ring but otherwise said nothing about it. "Would you like any wards?"

"Please. But I'm not sure what wards there are. I'm not good at school so I don't know what would work."

He tapped the feather of the quill against his chin. "You'll want some privacy charms Im sure…" he trailed off and started listing a whole bunch of different charms. He turned the list to me and pointed out which one did what. From a shrinking charm to a ward that zaps anyone who gets the password wrong.

Next were the compartments. "I would like a library. A wardrobe would be lovely. If you could put a secret compartment in there that's password protected as well then that would be lovely."

He finished writing with a flourish. "When will you need this by?"

"Hopefully by tonight. I'm not sure if I will be able to return tomorrow." He seemed to think it over, calculating how fast he could get the job done.

"I should be able to finish it in two hours." I gave him a grateful smile and he told me the price. I gave him half held up a hand in defense at his look.

"You'll get the other half when you're done." and with that I left the store.

I walked throughout the Alley once more and found Madam Malkins Robes for All Occasions. I had always detested clothes shopping, so I decided might as well get this over with as quickly as possible.

The bell above the door chimed and the woman behind the counter looked up and saw my figure standing uncomfortably in the door. "Hello there dearie. What can I help you with?"

I cleared my throat. "I need a new wardrobe."

Her eyes lit up like Christmas came early. It gave me the shivers. "Oh wonderful! Come on in and stand right up here." I was led onto a pedestal and she went to measure me when she finally noticed Basil around my shoulders. She gasped and laid a hand onto her chest. "Oh my. I'm sorry my dear but your snake will not be able to stay on your shoulders while I measure you. Neither can that odd coat you're wearing."

I conceded to Basil needing to move but not my hoodie. "I would much rather my face be hidden madam, please. I am only in need of casual robes and maybe a few cloaks. And pajamas. And socks. And shoes…" I trailed off when I realized my list kept getting longer.

I huffed "Can you not do this with my coat on?"

"If you wish to conceal your looks would you like me to put a glamour on you?" She put her hands in her hips.

I nodded, "Yea that will work." I stepped down and set my hoodie on a chair. Basil curled up on top, protectively watching my money and my wand. I returned to the pedestal and was subjected to what seemed like hours of various measurements, but was probably only about half an hour or so.

When she was done she stepped back and I sighed with relief. She looked at my black glamoured hair and regular blue eyes. I actually looked a lot different. "All right dearie. Be back in an hour and your clothes should be ready." I nodded my head and put my hoodie back on. Picking up my wand made me remember I wanted a wand holster.

My hood was replaced and Basil was around my neck. I turned around and saw Madam Malkin pointing her wand at me. I felt the glam ours effects fade away and I smiled gratefully.

I left the store and headed in the direction of Ollivanders. But before I could get there I found a bookstore called Flourish and Blotts. Entering the store I looked around at all the different books. I started at one end of the store and went from there. I found Hogwarts A History, Quidditch Through the Ages, several books on Animagus transformation, and a couple more on Occlumency, some on various magical creatures. I found a book about the theory behind magic, hoping it would help me learn how to use magic.

I had a good, heavy stack of books going and I was thankful the store owner allowed me to keep them up with him. I made it to a darker corner of the store and began looking through the books. Some were pretty gruesome and made me raise a brow, but I said nothing.

I wasn't really into learning about the dark arts. Sure it's magic too but I just never wanted too. Although I could read a book about dark magic. I took a book down with a title claiming it to be the history of dark magic and a voice sounded behind me.

"I've read that book before. There wasn't any good information in it." I turned around and saw a boy about my age with aristocratic features staring at Basil with calm, midnight blue, eyes. His dark–maybe black–hair was short and parted to the side. He was handsome, I'll give him that, and had an intelligent air about him. Even his voice was something we ladies would go to great lengths to hear. It was smooth and fairly deep.

"I'll be the judge of that." My voice held no emotion as I spoke, but he didn't seem to hear as he was having a staring contest with Basil. _"~Master he is a speaker. I can sense it~" _when she said that I realized that this boy was one Tom Riddle.

_Shouldn't he be at his orphanage?!_ I internally screamed, but on the outside I was perfectly calm and collected. "That's wonderful. Unfortunately it seems we need to return to our shopping."

I was going to walk to the register to buy my books but Riddle stepped in front of me. He held his hand out in front of him, "Tom Riddle."

I looked at his hand and debated whether or not I should return the gesture. I saw no harm in it and was intent to shake his hand, but he had other ideas. He grasped my hand and instead of shaking it pressed a kiss to my knuckles. My only response was "A pleasure." before I brushed past him.

I bought my books and had them put in a bag with a featherlight charm. I left the store without so much as a glance in Riddles direction, but that didn't mean I could feel his heavy gaze on my back.

When I made it out of the store I started reprimanding Basil. _"~Honestly why would you point that out! You foolish snake. I don't want anything to do with him~"_

_"~Forgive me Master, I didn't know.~"_

I sighed_ "~I will forgive you if you actually call me by my name~"_

_"~Agreed~"_

My time in F&B took longer than I thought. Before I knew it I was in Madam Mallins once again to collect my new clothes. "There you are dearie. That's seven cloaks, socks, undergarments, night wear, pair of shoes, and ten everyday robes." I paid her the required amount of galleons and thanked anyone who was listening that I was rich.

After that I had time to spare and I continued towards Ollivanders. I entered the dusty shop and was greeted by the same creepy Ollivander. I made Basil hide, but for all I knew he knew she was there. "What can I help you with today, Miss Abby?"

"I would like to get a wand holster, and for this meeting to stay silent." By agreeing I would never have to sneak out to his store at this hour again he agreed to stay silent that I was ever there, and he showed me to the several wand holsters.

The one I chose was black dragon hide, just like my trunk. And it had a purple rose decorating the side.

I left and made it to the trunk store to see the man coming out of a back room looking a little weary. When he saw me his weariness disappeared and he went back into the room before returning with my trunk. He laid it out before me and I looked at it with awe. It was the same black dragon hide, but this time there was red lining on the seams. My initials were printed right next to the handle in the same red color.

The best part was the very top of the trunk. Laying on a field of red was a black wolf with its head raised high, the same wolf from my ring. The only difference was that the wolfs eyes on the trunk were the same purple color as mine. That looked as though they were staring into my soul.

I looked at my ring and saw that the wolf did, indeed, have purple eyes like mine. I wordered why the man made them purple when my eyes had been covered.

The man explained to me how to set the password and how to shrink it, before I then opened it. Inside I saw two compartments lined with red fabric. The one on the right held the library while the one on the left was my wardrobe.

The bottom of the trunk was solid, but if I tapped it with my wand three times then I was able to put things through the floor and into the room beyond. I took my bags of clothes and gratefully dropped them into the wardrobe compartment. I heard the sound of clothes hitting the floor a couple seconds later, before solidifying the bottom and setting my books into it.

He showed me that the floor of the trunk was actually the secret compartment, and if I wanted to open it I had to tap my wand against the inside of the trunk and say the password. Before the bottom came up and revealed the empty space that turned out to be bottomless.

I closed the trunk and decided to set the password later when nobody would hear. I paid him the rest of the money and left the store, intent on getting back to Hogwarts. I had to backtrack when I found the Quidditch store though, and I couldn't resist.

When I left the store I had the newest model and a broom kit, both safely stored into my secret compartment. I shrunk the trunk and put it in my pocket along with my money pouch.

I found the Leaky Cauldron and went to use the Floo powder again but I didn't know what address to use. Stepping into the fire I threw the powder and pronounced "Hogsmead " before being promptly sucked to that vary place.

I don't know where I was spat out, but I do know I needed to find that candy store. I finally found the store, Honeydukes, before trying the door. Naturally it was locked. I took a deep breath before taking out my wand and pointing it at the lock. "Alohamora." Naturally nothing happened.

I took another deep breath _Come on magic I need you. Please? _I focused on the lock and grew determined, "Alohamora!" I heard a click and when I tried the door it actually opened. I couldn't believe it actually worked. I jumped up and down and kissed my wand. "Thank you magic." I whispered.

I gasped when I felt a warm, tingling sensation rush throughout my whole body. But after a few moments it was gone. I thought nothing of it and closed the door behind me, re-locking it. I held up my wand again and tried another spell. "Point me; Honeydukes cellar." My wand spun a couple times before pointing a little to my right. I followed it down into a dark looking room.

My wand started spinning uncontrollably and I determined I was on top of the trap door that would lead to Hogwarts. I tried more spells, "Lumos." When my wand lit up I could have done a happy dance. I couldn't believe that I was doing magic, successfully.

Turning my attention to the floor I searched until I finally found the outline of a square. I cut the light and pronounced "Wingardium Leviosa." I heard the scraping of moving tile and I felt the slab slowly lift from the air. I stopped and lit my wand again to see a set of dark stairs leading underground.

I kept my wand in front of me as I carefully descended the stairs. When I was low enough I replaced the stone slab and continued down the stairs. When I reached the bottom I started jogging through the tunnel. I wanted to try and get to bed as soon as possible. I had classes the next day and I didn't want to be all droopy eyed while they were trying to teach me.

It must have been close to an hour when I finally reached the end of the passage. I didn't want to risk stepping into the hallway because one of the teachers might be walking by.

"Hatty?"

A loud pop echoed throughout the passage. I quickly shushed her and held out my hand, "Can you bring me back to the dorms?" She quickly nodded and grabbed my hand, returning me to the dorms as I asked.

I set the trunk down on my bed and enlarged it before deciding to set the password. _"~Morrickson~"_ Nobody would guess it, and it was in another language.

I opened the trunk and tapped the bottom, allowing me access to the wardrobe. "Accio Pajamas." Nothing happened. _Well it can't always work._

I grudgingly set the trunk on the floor and cautiously stepped in. Nothing happened and I started feeling stupid for standing in a trunk when I started to descend. Kind of like an elevator.

When I reached the bottom I found my dream closet. It was as big as my room in the orphanage, with one side dedicated to hanging my clothes on a hanger. The opposite side had various boxes where I could put my various accessories. And on the third wall in front of me was slanted shelving that looked like it was for holding shoes.

Too tired to deal with my clothes I sifted through them all and found a set of pajamas before stepping back onto a square object that lifted me back out of the trunk. Pleased, I solidified the bottom and closed the trunk before shrinking it and putting it on the nightstand.

I changed and gratefully fell onto the bed. Falling asleep before my head even touched the pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning I was forced to get out of bed at 6am if I wanted to have enough time to get ready _and_ eat breakfast. I was thankfully used to getting up at early hours of the morning thanks to living in the orphanage.

I got ready and had a quick breakfast down in the great hall before I set off to the transfiguration classroom. I did my best to remember the way there and exhaled a relieved breath when I entered the familiar room.

The room had three rows of desks leading up to the front of the room, and sitting behind his own desk up front was Dumbledore. He welcomed me into the room with a smile and beckoned me to sit at the desk directly across from his own.

I set my wand on the desk in front of me and folded my hands in my lap. Dumbledore frowned at me, "My dear, are you not going to take any notes?"

I blinked "I have nothing to take notes with." When I said this Dumbledore lost his frown and opened a drawer in his desk.

"Well we will have to fix that then." He came back and set a book of parchment in front of me, along with a quill and some black ink. "You may use these for the week, until we can get you some more."

A accepted the book graciously and flipped it open to the first page. I uncalled the inkwell and slowly dipped the quill in the ink, coating the tip. I tapped it against the lid to get rid of any access ink before looking back up to Dumbledore.

"Welcome to your first class of transfiguration…" the class was much like the first year class that was taken in Harry Potter. Dumbledore started by explaining to me some of the things transfiguration can be used for. One of those things was Animagus transformations, but that was an advanced piece of transfiguration he wasn't going to teach me.

The first bit of magic he had me try to do was to turn a match into a needle. By the end of class I had successfully changed the needle. When I did I am unashamed to admit that I jumped up and down and hugged Dumbledore. I was working on changing it back when the class ended.

I closed my new notebook and thanked Dumbledore before leaving the room and heading towards charms. I hugged the book to my chest and skipped off to my next class for the day.

* * *

><p>My day was spent running throughout the castle to go from class to class. My only break was lunch and thankfully Hatty remembered my request and I was given a glass of milk instead of pumpkin juice. I smiled at her thoughtfulness.<p>

By the end of the day I had learned how turn a matchstick into a needle, the levitation charm (even though I technically already knew it), was introduced to the concepts of Arithmacy, and in Herbology the eccentric professor Beery decided it would be a good learning experience to try and escape Devils Snare.

I was considerably irritated by the time I got up to the dorms. I was covered in dirt and my clothes had grass stains on them. I couldn't wear my new clothes because then everybody would wonder where I got them.

I stripped down and got into the shower. I watched the dirt wash down the drain with satisfaction before finishing up my shower.

When I got out I saw the grass stained clothes had been switched out for a new set of clean robes. I saw Basil curled up on my pillow and noticed a bulge in her stomach, signaling that she had been fed as well. "Hatty?"

Said house-elf popped into the room "You's be callin for Hatty Miss Abby?"

I gestured to the bed "Did you get those clothes and feed Basil?" Hatty nodded her head and her eyes widened, thinking she had done something wrong.

I walked up to her and drew her into a tight hug before setting her back down and looking at her stunned features, "Thank you". I grabbed the clothes off of the bed and returned to the bathroom to change into them so I could join the teachers for dinner.

Looking at myself in the mirror and brushed my wet hair. I brushed it back and twirled it up into a bun before finding a ribbon on the counter and tying it off. I deemed myself presentable and left the common room to join the teachers for dinner. I was grateful I didn't have to sit next to Beery.

Finishing dinner I left the Great Hall so I could return to the library. When I got there I nodded my head to the librarian and received one in return. I sat at a table in a darker corner of the library. I brought out the history book from the night before and finished the rest of the book.

I put the book back but felt unsatisfied with the information from it. I wanted to learn more about the current world. Things about Grindlewald.

Deciding to catch up on those things later I familiarized myself with the library because I knew I would be spending a lot of time in here. It made me wonder why the hat didn't put me in Ravenclaw.

I found books on the theory of transfiguration, charms, DADA, and potions. I looked through the shelves that kept the potions books and found one that caught my attention. The book explained why you would slice instead of dice. Or why you would stir clockwise instead of counter-clockwise.

I brought the five books up to the librarian and asked her if I could check them out. She gave me a stern look that only went away when I promised her I would take good care of them. I took the books and brought them up to the dorms where I set them on the floor next to my bed.

Taking my trunk out of my pocket I enlarged it and set it on the floor at the end of the bed. I called for Hatty and told her to keep watch in case anybody comes to the common room for me. If there was someone I told her to pop right into the trunk to tell me.

I opened the trunk and decided to deal with my clothes first. Going down into the wardrobe compartment I started by hanging up my robes first. Out of the ten, six of them were black while the other four were a dark purple, forest green, deep red, and navy blue color.

After I hung up the robes I took out the pair of shoes. They looked like fancy leather ankle boots that were actually really cute and I couldn't wait to wear them.

The pajamas were made of silk. Two of them were night gowns and I forced Malkin to make me pajama pants. I folded them up and placed them on one of the shelves. I put my undergarments on the shelf next to the pajamas.

I stepped back to survey the wardrobe. It was rather empty but I didn't mind, I wasn't into owning a bunch of clothes I would never wear.

Leaving the wardrobe I stepped out of the trunk and picked up the books I had bought from F&B. I tapped the bottom of the trunk three times with my wand and entered the library. I entered a rectangular room with three of the walls lined with bookshelves. Two extra bookshelves were placed in the middle of the room. Against the wall, bare of any shelves, there were four oak tables pushed up against the wall.

The shelves were made of the same oak wood as the tables and the rug was a warm red color. Candles were set about the room, making it look more warm and inviting.

I brought my books to one wall of shelves and placed the books in there in alphabetical order. From Animagus Transformations to Quidditch Through the Ages. I held the book I had bought about the history of dark magic. Seeing the cover reminded me of my interaction with one Tom Riddle. Why he was in Diagon Alley I probably would never know but I supposed it didn't matter much. What did matter was whether or not he would recognize me when he came to Hogwarts for the next school year.

I set the book on the shelf and left the trunk. Shrinking the trunk I set it on the nightstand with my notebook and changed into my nightgown. Slipping under the covers I drew the bed hangings shut before laying back and shutting my eyes and falling to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

_"~Parseltongue~"_

* * *

><p>I stretched out on my bed with a yawn. Groggily opening my eyes to reveal the Saturday sun's bright rays streaming into the room. I sat up in the bed and sat there a few moments, looking through the room to hopefully find something that would tell me what time it was. Naturally I found nothing.<p>

I groped for my wand on the nightstand, intending to use it and cast _Tempus_, but I only succeeded in hitting it off the nightstand. It rolled up to the wall five feet away from the bed and out of reach.

Collapsing back onto the bed I covered my eyes with one hand and dangled my other arm over the edge of the bed. I threw up my arm and stared at the beds canopy above me, "I just wanted my wand. That shouldn't require getting out of bed." Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm _not_ a morning person. I just don't like getting out of the nice, warm, comfy bed.

But I guess it wasn't necessary to get out of the bed yet because the next thing I know my wand is slapping into my palm. It's sudden appearance–along with the now stinging in my palm–made me gasp in shock and shuck it away from me. The wand landed on the floor and clattered across the room.

I looked at the wand as if it was a spider. Let me tell you right now that my greatest fear is spiders. I was waiting for the wand to jump at me like it did before. I was waiting for a long time before I finally realized it wasn't going to do anything.

I crawled to the end of the bed, keeping my eyes glued on the wand. Basil slithered up next to me_ "~What is wrong Master Dani?~"_ she never did stop calling me Master, but at least she added my name–even if it is a nickname.

_"~I'm not sure yet Basil~"_ I looked at my hand to find it had a red mark from where the wand had hit me. I looked between the wand and my hand before hesitantly holding my hand out for the wand.

Throughout the week I had been thanking my magic every night before bed, and each time I did I felt a warm sensation wash throughout my body from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. The sensation would always seem to linger in my veins before slowly fading away. When the wand went from the floor and into my hand I felt the sensation run through me, but this time it felt as though whatever was rushing through my veins was happy that it had been used, and the comforting warmth had yet to fade away.

I've never really known what the warmth was, but it never failed to bring a smile to my face. Now that the feeling washed through me while doing wandless magic–because what else could it have been?–I am coming to the conclusion that what I have been feeling was my magic.

From reading the stories about Harry Potter and actually being in Hogwarts, I fully believe that magic was sentient. Not enough to have a mind of its own, but if that feeling of happiness was anything to go by then it could definitely have its own emotions. And it seemed that every time I thanked my magic that was its own way of showing me its appreciation.

With my hand still outstretched towards my wand I thought about what I was feeling when I used my magic. When it happened I knew that my thoughts were revolving around how much I just wanted my wand.

Nothing was really happening so I concentrated on how much I wanted my wand. This time I when I held out my hand I slightly waved my hand. I gave a small gasp when my magic start rushing through me. The magic was concentrated in my palm and the wand flew from the floor and landed in my hand with a smack.

I grinned at the wand with triumph. The grin faded when I realized I was feeling tired. Not tired that you felt when going to bed, but the tired like I've been running for a while and need to catch my breath. Whenever I used my magic before I had never felt this tired and I wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because without the aid of a wand it was more taxing on my magic. With no other explanations for it I decided I would go with that reason. I would just have to exorcise my magic more.

I couldn't wait.

* * *

><p>I was finishing up my lunch in the great hall when a jolly voice spoke from the seat next to me. "Are you ready to go Miss Abby?" I looked to my left and saw professor Slughorn smiling over at me.<p>

Over the past week I've only had two potions classes, but Slughorn seemed to take a shine to me when I would ask questions about why a certain ingredient reacted the way it did, or why dicing an ingredient would work better than dicing.

He wasn't the only teacher that I seemed to have grown on. It seemed like professor Binns of all people _Well, ghosts really._ And it surprised me because history was never my best class, and whenever they talked about proffessor Binns' teaching everyone would fall asleep in the class. That or just occupy their time doing something else.

Naturally he taught me about the goblin wars and it took all of my will power not to fall asleep. But there was one thing he had said that I didn't understand, so when I asked a question about it he had stopped his droning and looked at me as if I had two heads. Apparently nobody had ever interrupted him before, or asked him a question. After that class he seemed a little more enthusiastic about our lessons together, and when we would pass each other in the hallways every once in a while he would nod to me and I would nod back.

I shook my head to get rid of my thoughts and turned to answer Slughorn, "Ready as ever professor." When Slughorn heard that I needed to get school supplies he volunteered, quite enthusiastically, to help me get my supplies. Dumbledore was originally going to do it but Slughorn insisted.

Slughorn brought me down to his classroom and brought me to his office. In his office there was a fireplace with a bowl of familiar silver powder on the mantle. He took down the bowl and held it out to me so he could explain what it was and how it was used. I had already used it once so I didn't need to hear how it was used.

I soon found myself getting spat out of the fireplace and into the Leaky Cauldron. It was pretty busy, most likely because it was a Saturday and people were out for lunch.

I waited for Slughorn before allowing him to lead me out of the Cauldron and into the Alley. It wasn't long before he brought me to Scribbulus Everchanging Ink. Inside was filled with numerous amounts of quills all different sizes and colors. The same went for the inkwells. The inks were all different colors, some even changed color, and the inkwells changed in size as well.

It was unnecessary to get any of the more colorful inks, but Slughorn decided I needed them. I walked out of that store with at least one of each color under the rainbow, mostly black because that's the ink I will use for any homework (which I have yet to get, thank goodness). I also got five quills so I would no longer have to use Dumbledores. And if one breaks I can have a back-up.

We set off to get my parchment when I made the mistake of asking him about his house. By mistake I meant that once I asked him I had initiated a one-sided conversation about how his snakes were such good students (which had me internally laughing because most if not all of those snakes would become death eaters) and how one of them was one of his best students, named Tom Riddle.

I showed no reaction to hearing the name. But in actuality there wasn't much emotion to show because I didn't know what to make of Riddle just yet. I knew he was going to become Voldemort and everything, but I was never in the war myself so I couldn't feel any hate towards him.

We entered another shop and I let Slughorn take control over what to buy, because I didn't have a single clue on what I needed. I wandered through the store and found myself in front of the journal section. My gaze drifted from book to book until one caught my attention.

Bound by a red leather cover was a blank journal about and inch-and-a-half thick. I flipped through the journal and went to put it back when I had an idea. I knew just how I wanted to use this journal, but to do that I needed to buy it.

I caught up with Slughorn just as he made it up to the counter to buy what looked to be journals. They weren't that thick–maybe only a centimeter–but I figured I could find a spell that could give the journals a never-ending amount of paper if it was needed.

I set the journal I had found on the counter, and when he looked at me I told him I wanted to get this book. He didn't argue with me about it, and I was pretty sure he believed I would use it for drawing or something. Technically that was exactly what I was gonna do, but he didn't need to know the details.

From the store Slughorn had also found me a bag I could use to carry everything we just bought from the Alley. It was a simple black, over-the-shoulder bag. When I got the course books for when school started everything would fit inside pretty nicely.

I was more than happy to leave the Alley. I wanted to get back to the castle and start researching for certain spells can use on my book. Password protections. Maybe some kind of altered sticking charm. Making the ink appear when a certain phrase is said. Whatever else I think I would need to create my own version of the Marauders Map I would scour the Hogwarts library for it.

When we made it back to Hogwarts I thanked Slughorn and was rewarded with a cheery wave, "Of course, of course!" I raced away to the library and when I was standing in front of the doors I straightened out my clothes before calmly entering the library.

I didn't want to ask the librarian to help me find books about books, she would probably think I was crazy. So I decided I would just start looking at one end of the library and make my way to the other. Anything I found that I believed would help me in the making of the map I would pull down and flip through. It would end with me either keeping the book and add it to the forming stack floating beside me, or give a frustrated huff and put the book back.

I was only one-third of the way through the library when I was forced to leave the library because it was closing. I collected my small stack of books and brought them to the dormitory. I placed my new quills and ink on the bed, along with the bag Slughorn had gotten for me.

Opening one of the black inkwells I dipped a quill inside and flipped open the cover of one of the journals to write _5th year, Transfiguration. _I blew on the ink to dry it before closing the journal and sticking it into the bag. Picking up another journal I did the same thing, but labeled it as my charms journal instead of transfiguration.

When I finished labeling each journal I capped the inkwell and went to put it in my bag but stopped. I picked up one of the books I just got from the library and flipped through the one filled with protection spells.

I skimmed through the pages until I found the spell I was looking for. It was an unbreakable spell that was used in objects to make them unbreakable. I didn't want the inkwells to break and spill all over my bag. Knowing me that could happen.

After a couple tries I successfully did the spell (Not without breaking a vase Hatty had kindly lent me) I spelled all of the inkwells before putting them into the bag. When I was finished I put the bag on the floor at the end of the bed before looking over at the leather bound book still sitting on my bed.

I picked up the book and set it on top of those I had just gotten from the library. The next day was a Sunday, and with no classes I needed to go to I had all day to work on making the map. I decided against using a piece of parchment, because it would feel like I was copying the Marauders. I wanted to make something on my own that I thought up myself.

The first thing I would need to do was get the layout of the castle, starting from the first floor up to the seventh. Hopefully I could find a couple of secret passageways the Marauders haven't…well, won't.


	7. Chapter 7

_"~Parseltoungue~"_

* * *

><p>Eating my toast I stood in front of the castles west entrance hall. My book was in my arms along with my quill and some black ink.<p>

Laying the book flat on the floor I turned to the middle of the book and started on the right page. I started on the bottom left corner where I drew the entrance hall, along with the marble staircase that led up to the first floor. To the left of the room there were two doors and in between them was a hallway. I did not know what the rooms were that the two doors led to, so I didn't label them. The hallway held two more rooms, by the looks of them they seemed to be storage rooms. The end of the hallway turned right and led up to a doorway. Beyond the door was a courtyard. I went back through the door and went back to the entrance hall.

In the hallway beyond the marble staircase were the large double doors that led into the Great Hall. Inside the Great Hall were the four house tables, along with the head table. But past the head table were two doors. One door revealed itself to be a staircase, presumably for the teachers use. The other door led down into a chamber filled with all sorts of different items. From the fourth Harry Potter movie I figured this to be the room Harry went to when his name was called. Outside of the Great Hall, across the hallway, were five large archways that revealed the courtyard I had seen about ten minutes ago.

Continuing down the hallway I found myself in another, smaller hallway. Across the hall was an opening that led to into the chamber with the moving staircases. Turning left in the hallway I traced how it went all the way down, past the courtyard, and revealed another doorway that led out to the courtyard. The right part of the hallway held a painting of a bowl of fruit. I smiled and knew that was where the kitchens were located. Branching out from the hallway was another hallway that led all the way down to the east entrance hall. I went through the entrance hall and looked outside to see the Quidditch pitch, along with the greenhouses, and the trail down to Hogsmead.

I looked down at the book in my hands and was happy with what I've drawn. Both pages of the book were filled with the drawings of the ground floor. There were sections of the map unfilled, but that was mostly because those areas were on different floors.

The kitchens were the only secret area I knew about on the ground floor. Later on I would look for secret passages I could add to the map once I had finished drawing out the castle floors.

As I was walking back towards the castles west entrance I pulled out my wand and cast a quick _Tempus_ charm. I raised my eyebrows when I saw it had only taken about an hour to draw up the ground floor. It felt longer than that.

I was standing at the top of the marble staircase and allowed the ink on the pages to dry before turning to a new page and readying my quill to start drawing once again.

On the right side of the hallway was the girls bathroom, and the other side was the boys. I continued down and drew down two empty class rooms as I passed them by. The end of the hall opened up to the moving staircases. But to the right the hallway continued down where the History of Magic classroom was located.

I passed the moving stairs and found the doors of what looked to be the hospital wing. It couldn't have been anything else really, because looking inside I saw a row of hospital beds pushed up to each wall. I left the Hospital Wing and went down another hallway with a door at the end. I opened the door and looked at the room. It was a half-circle in shape with a large window looking out over the Quidditch pitch. And sitting at his desk in the middle of the room was professor Dumbledore.

"Miss Abby!" He seemed pretty surprised to see me. I don't blame him, I'm surprised too. "What brings you here?" His surprise was replaced with an inquiring smile.

I awkwardly cleared my throat, "Sorry professor. I was just walking around and I guess I stumbled upon…" I waved my hand at my surroundings, "your office?"

He nodded and I knew I was right that this was his office. I nodded and began backing out of the room, "I'm sorry I bothered you sir."

He waved me away, "Not at all my dear." I smiled at him and closed his door. I looked down at my book and labeled off where the transfiguration office was before returning to the marble staircase.

I made my way up another set of stairs and onto the second floor. Throughout the second floor was where the statue was protecting the headmasters office. Further down, was where I found the bathrooms. I entered the girls bathroom expecting to hear the wails of Moaning Myrtle, only to find that the bathroom was silent.

I went further into the bathroom and called out for Myrtle, but received no response. I knew it was in Riddles fifth year when he released the basilisk that killed Myrtle…my eyes widened with horror…unless he hasn't released the basilisk. I looked at the sink where I knew the entrance was before I fled the bathroom, and ran up to the third floor.

_Of all the times I could have fallen into this universe, I fall in the year the basilisk is released._ I walked around the third floor with these thoughts swirling in my head. Absentmindedly drawing the floor plan the details of the floor as I passed them by. There was another hospital wing on this floor, along with the trophy room. This floor was where the charms classroom was located. One hall led up to the room where fluffy was kept in the first Harry Potter.

The fourth floor held the library. The library took up most of the floor plan apparently. If you took a left turn out of the library that was the hallway that would bring you to the stairs that led up to the owlery. I could hear the hoots and screeches of the school owls. There was access to the Astronomy tower on this floor, as well as the stairs to the north tower. The base of these stairs was where the Divination classroom was located.

The fifth floor set up had the perfects bathroom east of the moving stairs, and north of the stairs was a statue. But behind the statue was a door, No knob or anything, just a door with an eagle knocker. I looked at the knocker inquisitively when it suddenly came to life. "Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?" Getting over the shock that a knocker just spoke to me, I realized what it said was a riddle. And a rather simple one at that.

"Nothing." The door swung inward and further in was a wide round room with midnight blue carpet. There were arched windows with blue and bronze silk curtains. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars. Looking out the window there was an excellent view of the school grounds. _Why didn't I become a Ravenclaw?_

The only thing to be found on the sixth floor was empty classrooms. But the seventh floor was the one I was most familiar with. The entrance to the Gryffindor common rooms was on this floor. But north of the common room, there was a corridor where one Room of Requirement was placed.

The wall with the RoR was the last detail I needed before I was finally done. It had taken me all day, but I've finally finished drawing up the castle. I was filled with giddy excitement as I ran to the Gryffindor common room. I found the books I had gotten from the library before I left Gryffindor tower and stood in front of where the Room of Requirement would be.

I thought of what I needed before slowly pacing in front of the wall _I need help finishing my map…I need help finishing my map…I need help finishing my map… _I didn't think the room would appear, considering what I asked for wasn't really something a room could help me with. But the Room must have thought of something because a door appeared on the wall.

Walking through the door I examined the room. If I ever had a dream room then this would have been it, I thought it was perfect. The walls were a deep red color while the floors were a dark hard wood flooring. Designed into the floor was a black wolf sitting on its haunches and holding its head up with pride. I shook my head at the image. It seemed like that wolf was incorporating into my life since I found out I was a Morrickson.

On the left wall there was a roaring fireplace, the warmth and the crackling flames making me feel relaxed. In front of the fire was a black leather couch, along with a cherrywood table. The other side of the room had shelves filled to the brim with books.

I set my stuff down on the couch and walked up to the books. I brushed my fingers over the books before one title caught my eye "Hidden Ink". I plucked it off the shelf and opened it to the index. I sank into the couch and read through half of the index when my eyes flicked up to the table.

I narrowed my eyes at the object on the table and sat up, placing the book on the seat beside me. I leaned over the table and realized what I was seeing was actually underneath a pane of glass that had been stuck to the table. And under that glass was a full map of Hogwarts. By full map I mean even the secret rooms and passages were put on it.

All of the passages overlapped and intertwined. If I was going to copy them all down it would take me hours, maybe days. I flipped open my book to the ground floor and took out my wand. I tried using a copying spell, but nothing happened. I tried again but I got the same result.

"That isn't going to work."

I jumped from the couch so fast I went tumbling backwards and tripped over the table. I shook of my daze and scrambled to hide on the couch. I slowly raised my head and peaked over the back to see the person who had spoken.

It turned out it wasn't a person at all, but a ghost. The ghost was an intimidating 6'0, with a lean, but still muscular body. His black clothes would have made his muscles stand out more, except he had a deep green cloak, with silver fur lining, draped over his shoulders. His deep forest green eyes were shining with amusement as he stared at me. His thin lips were tugging into an amused smirk as well. Probably because he had seen, and caused, my trip over the table.

I narrowed my eyes at his amusement but said nothing about it. "Who are you?" My tone was cautious.

He sighed and rolled his eyes as if my ignorance of who he was irritated him. "I shall give you a hint _~you ignorant child~"_

I straightened with offense at his words. Just because I didn't know who he was doesn't mean he had to insult me._"~Just because I didn't realize who you were, doesn't give you the right to go about and insult me!~" _I hadn't even realized I had slipped into parseltongue, so when he looked at me with wide eyes I didn't understand why.

I couldn't think on it any longer because the look was soon gone and replaced with an intrigued look._ "~You speak?~"_

I didn't understand his question at first. Why would he be so interested in my ability to talk? I looked at him like he was crazy and he rolled his eyes at me again. _"~Think, child, what is it that we are doing?~"_

_"~Were talking~"_ I said it as if I was speaking to a small child.

He was obviously irritated by the way I had spoken to him and I forced myself not to smirk. _"~And how are we speaking?~"_ His irritation showed in his voice.

_"~What do you mean how?~" _I felt Basil slither out from under my clothes and slither down to my hand where she promptly bit me.

I cried out with pain and shook her from my hand. She leveled her head with to look me in the eyes _"~Master you are acting stupid. You are both speaking the language of the snakes.~"_ She flicked her tongue out at me and wrapped herself around my neck once again.

_"~I like her~"_ I looked up at the ghost and blushed when I remembered how I had spoken to him.

I cleared my throat _"~That's Basil, short for Basilisk. I've had her since I was about twelve~"_

He hummed, "Now, child, do you know who I am?" I looked at the ghost and nodded my head once. There were only so many people out there known to be able to talk to snakes. And one of them, one of the most famous of them, was Salazar Slytherin.

"Good. Now tell me, how is it that you can speak the language of snakes?" I didn't like his commanding tone and as punishment I turned my back on him and sat on the couch, taking out a quill and ink to begin drawing the secret passageways for my map.

"You must be my heir." I sighed with exasperation.

"Yes I am an heir," I held up a finger, "but I am only a magical heir. Not a real heir."

"Oh I would think otherwise. If magic chose you to be an heir then that means you have the best qualities to be an heir to the line. These qualities are found in ones magic, and that's what makes them a magical heir."

I returned my attention to adding the secret passages and room to my map book. After I ignored any of Slytherins attempts at continued conversation he finally got the message that I wasn't in the mood to talk, and he disappeared.

I had finished drawing the passages for the ground floor, along with the first floor. I was halfway done with the second floor when my eyes started drifting shut. I tried to fight off the exhaustion but it seemed the Room could sense my need for sleep and the couch turned into a bed. I sunk into the fluffy bed and allowed myself to fall in a deep sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

It would seem that wasn't going to be my only meeting with Salazar Slytherin. Every night after classes I would go back to the RoR and continue to copy down the secret passages. After awhile Slytherin would show up and start pestering me.

One night I had finally had enough and interrupted his monologue about who-knows-what. "Will you kindly shut up!" Slytherin looked at me coolly but stopped talking.

"Must you always come here and pester me? Why are you even here, is there a reason?"

"I come here because if this room." was his reply.

"Sal that tells me nothing." Hearing me say the name Sal makes him narrow his eyes at me, slightly irritated. His irritation is exactly why I call him that. "What is so important about this room–besides the fact there's a map of Hogwarts is in here–that you feel the need to come here whenever I do?"

He stared into the fire with a contemplative look, as if wondering if he should tell me. "The fact that you could enter this room at all is why I decided to come and watch you." He strode up to the table and set his hand over the image of the map, "This image of Hogwarts was what we had used to build the castle. It is what you would call a 'blueprint'. The four of us had agreed to hide the map away so our enemies might not get a hold of it and be able to infiltrate the castle."

It was true. I could see on the second floor that the chamber of secrets had a passage that led out into the forest. It was obviously for the basilisk, and only parseltoungues, but that was an example. There was another passage that led to the middle of the Quidditch pitch, and one that stopped outside the west entrance of the castle.

"What does that have to do with me being able to come in here?" I asked.

"Because nobody else knew about this rooms existence we hid the map here. Nobody else was supposed to find it, or even be able to get into the room. The fact that you were able to conjure a room with the map _and_ enter the room is the reason for my presence."

I set my quill down on my almost finished map and looked at the room around me. "Why is it so surprising that I was able to enter the room though?"

Salazar let out a long, suffering sigh but responded anyway, "You were able to conjure up this room that held the map," he tapped the table, "and because it's in here the door should not have allowed you to enter. But for some reason you were able to. It's for that reason we wanted to find out about you."

I was nodding my head until I realized what he said. "What do you mean 'we'?"

"If you wish to know," he pointed to the entrance of a secret room on the sixth floor, "the. You will just have to come and find out." and with that he vanished from sight.

I picked up my quill and absentmindedly finished copying all of the secret passages before leaving the room. I looked down and saw there was actually a secret passage behind the Barnabas the Barmy tapestry across from the RoR.

I moved aside the tapestry to reveal a set of stairs. The stairs led down to a twisting tunnel. It was about ten minutes before I reached what looked like a door. The tunnel kept going, but according to the map this first door opened up to the sixth floor. Turns out this tunnel wove throughout the whole castle, it had an exit for each floor.

Opening the door and found myself outside of the Astronomy tower stairway. When I closed the doorway I found the door to be a painting of a wolf pack. The wolves were a beautiful white, matching the snowy background. I went down the hallway and found where the entrance for the secret room was supposed to be. All I saw was a set of armor.

I looked at the map, then at the armor. I closed the book and tucked into my robe and set my hands on my hips. I started tapping my foot and examined where the entrance could possibly be. The armor was standing on a pedestal. It's back was straight with one arm behind its back and the other holding an ax.

I knocked on the chest of the suit and listened to the resounding echo. The armor suddenly took up its ax and wielded it at the wall next to it. I covered my ears to muffle the loud clanging noise from the impact. I cracked my eyes open and looked a the wall. My eyebrows were high upon my forehead as I watched ripples appear on the wall.

Walking up to the wall and set my hand in it, only to have it sink through the wall. I fell through the wall and crashed to the floor beyond it. Thankfully the floor was carpeted and cushioned my landing.

I pushed myself off of the white carpet and looked ahead of me to find a green wall with a portrait of Salazar Slytherin hanging in the middle of the wall. He was looking down at me and I realized this was the second time he has ever seen me fall to the floor.

"So you're a portrait now? I thought you were a ghost?" Salazar didn't respond to my question, but someone else did.

"When we made these portraits we had it so that when we passed on our presence would still be able to watch over the castle."

I whipped my head to the left and saw a blue painted wall with the portrait of a woman in the middle of the wall. She had long black hair and dark eyes looking kindly down at me. "So you are the child Salazar has spoken about?"

Before I could answer a man spoke up, and it wasn't Salazar. "Of course she is! How else would she have found this room?"

The booming voice came from a portrait on another wall, this time painted red. The portrait was a muscular man with a mane of red hair and a thick red beard. His green eyes, while not as intense as Salazar's, we're looking at me with a sparkle of mischief. "Look at her! She's pretty isn't she? The perfect heiress!"

"Godric honestly her looks are not the reason for her being a perfect heir." I spun again and found the fourth, and final wall to be painted an off white with the picture of a woman sitting down in a wing backed chair. She was a rather plump woman with fiery red hair, more red than the man she called Godric. She looked over me with her blue eyes, "She is pretty though. Those eyes are striking!"

I blushed and looked down. I peaked through a curtain of hair and looked at Salazar's portrait. "When you said we…you meant the rest of the founders?"

He smirked, "Of course I did. Who else would I have been talking about?"

I hugged but said nothing. If I had known I was going to be meeting the other founders I would have changed, and put some better clothes on. From the sounds of things though, it would seem Godric Gryffindor didn't mind. I looked at said mans portrait, "You think I'm pretty?"

The other founder groaned and the portrait of Ravenclaw spoke, "Do not mind him dear. He's always been a charmer." I nodded my head. It sounded like Gryffindor was like an old version of James Potter.

In the middle of the room there was a circle of white couches with a white table in the middle. I set my bag on a couch and my map book on the table. The book caught the attention of all of the founders. "What is that–? You know, I do not believe we have ever gotten your name."

I looked at Helga, "My name is Danielle Abby."

"But that is not your full name, is it child." I glanced at Salazar from my position on the couch.

"No," I agreed, "it isn't my full name. When I came here I found out that I was the heiress of ancient and noble lines. If you must know my full name is Daniella Rose Abby-Morrickson-Ravenclaw-Slytherin."

The founders were all looking at me with surprise, Ravenclaw and Slytherin more so. "Salazar!" Gryffindors voice never seemed to lose its booming quality, "You didn't tell us she was one of Rowena's! And to top it off she's a Morrickson!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" His last sentence made me puff up with indignation.

"Nothing Lady Abby-Morrickson-Ravenclaw-Slytherin!" Godric rushed out the sentence, trying to reassure me. "I was friends with a Morrickson is all."

"Oh that's right! Erik Morrickson, he was a childhood friend of yours wasn't he Godric? You two were thick as thieves." I jumped and looked next to me to see Helga Hufflepuff sitting on the couch next to me. I looked back at the painting to see it had stopped moving. Helga chuckled, "No need to be startled Lady Abby-Morrickson-Ravenclaw-Slytherin. We are able to leave our portraits and obtain this ghost like form. It was Rowena's idea."

I shook my head, "Please don't call me Lady Abby-Morrickson-Ravenclaw-Slytherin. It's a mouth full, and I'm only the heiress. Danielle will do."

Rowena's ghost form appeared on the couch across from me. "You may only be the heiress but you are still part of the ancient bloodlines. It's your responsibility to honor that."

"You don't understand, I don't know how! I shouldn't even be a part of these ancient families." I started feeling a little distressed. I've been so lost in this world. Only able to make my way from what I've read in books. My classes are being rushed because I have to learn five years worth of material in only eight weeks. Two years worth for the electives. The stress has been killing me.

"And why shouldn't you be a part of these families, Lady Danielle?" Salazar appeared on my left.

"I…" I didn't know if I should tell them. I knew I could trust them, but I also knew they couldn't help me. There weren't books out there that could send me back to another time, let alone another dimension. That kind of magic hadn't even been really thought about. They make it with Time Turners but they only work over a span of hours.

"You can tell us child. Do not be afraid." It seemed Godric had decided to join us on the couch, he was sitting next to Rowena.

I shifted in my seat and looked at the expectant faces of the founders. Saying this output seemed to prove harder than I would have thought. "I'm not really from around here."

"Well we figured that from your accent, but that doesn't mean you can't be a part of the families." said Rowena.

"No that's not what I meant! I meant…I meant I'm from another time, in a different dimension."

The statement made their eyebrows rise. "Honey," Helga set her hand on my knee, but the comforting gesture was lost when I felt nothing, "I know you might be feeling a little stressed, but that kind of thing simply isn't possible."

"You don't think I know that!" I jumped up from the seat and began pacing around the circle of couches. "That I don't know I sound absolutely crazy!"

Salazar appeared in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. "If what you're saying is true, is there a way for you to prove it? Otherwise your claims will make you be deemed as crazy."

I scratched my head and thought of any possible ways to prove it. "Can you use magic?"

"No." The forlorn response came from Godric.

I sighed really loudly. With them unable to use magic made legilimaency out of the question. I couldn't tell them about Harry Potter or anything about the books because all of that stuff happens in the future and can't be proven as true. Besides I didn't want any of it to become true. There was one other option I could try, however.

"Can you use a pensieve?" Rowena went to speak, probably to say no, but stopped and seemed to change her answer.

"I am unsure if it is possible. We haven't tried it." I nodded my head and gathered up my things before running to the wall I had entered from.

"Meet me in the Room of Requirement. I'll see if I can get the room to make up a pensieve." I cautiously stuck my head through the wall to make sure nobody was around to see me, before rushing out and going back to the wolf painting. _These wolves are everywhere._

"Er, could you open up please?" One wolf from the pack noticed me and trotted up away from its pack, as if trying to get closer. It sat back and cocked its head at me.

"Could you please open up? I have to go to the seventh floor."

It cocked its head the other way and the door remained firmly shut. I let out a frustrated sigh, "Is there some kind of password I'm supposed to use?"

The wolf let out a howl of agreement and I quickly shushed it. I listened for any footsteps before determining nobody had heard. "Well what is it?"

The wolf did nothing. "Is it something stupidly random like…like jester or something?" It was the first word to come into my head and I have no idea why.

I couldn't find a reason to care when I heard the door give a soft click and swing outward. "You've got to be kidding me." I deadpanned. "You made me make it up didn't you?" I heard a muffled bark.

_Whatever works I guess._ I made it through the tunnel up to the Barnabas tapestry. Cautiously sticking my head out before pacing in front of the wall and waiting for the door appeared.

When it appeared I entered at the same time the founders showed up. The room was the same, only this time there was a pensieve sitting on the table on top of the map. "Alright you guys," I held my wand up to my forehead, "how do I do this?"

"You mean to tell me," started Salazar, "that you don't know how to extract memories?"

"Er…no?"

"That is foolish." He snapped. "Had you not asked you could have seriously messed with your own head! Getting a memory twisted and jumbled with other and you wouldn't be able to distinguish which was which."

"Alright I realize that! It's why I asked you guys so I didn't do anything drastic to myself." I retorted.

"Calm down, both of you." Rowena was quick to intervene. "Now, Lady Daniella, you need to focus on the memory you wish to extract, and only that memory. If you get distracted while retrieving the memory then there could be consequences."

I nodded and searched for a memory I could show them. The first memory I extracted was one where I was on the computer looking up various things, most likely Harry Potter things. The next was when I was leaving the library and a car drove by. Another was when I had gone to the mall for a job.

These memories were enough to show I was from the muggle world, and another time. But it didn't explain the fact I was from another dimension. I placed my wand to my temple seven more times before I was finally done.

When the last memory was placed into the pensieve theme founders shifted closer to the basin. "Well, here goes nothing." And with that Godric stuck his head into the bowl of memories. When he didn't come back up the other founders joined him. Feeling awkward standing there while their ghostly forms were bent over the pensieve, I decided to join them.

It seemed they made it to my memory of the cars. They were looking around them with pure curiosity, and when a car drove through them Godric jumped back and walked through me. But it wasn't me, it was memory me.

They stared at memory me and surveyed the clothes I was wearing. I had on a black tshirt with a navy blue sweatshirt. My pants were simple dark skinny jeans, and I had on my pair of beat up black converse.

"What are you wearing?" Salazar sounded scandalized. "That is not the proper attire for an heiress."

"That's the style where I'm from. It's not like I've ever had anything nice to wear anyway." My tone was bitter as I spoke the last sentence.

The founders looked at me questioningly but didn't have the chance to ask because the memories changed. I smiled at the familiar surroundings of the local mall. I was made the malls janitor because I was too young to get a job in any of the stores, but they didn't mind having another set of hands cleaning up the mall.

"What is this place?" Godric looked at me. He seemed to have a childish glee sparkling in his eyes at the fact we were standing in a place they had never before seen.

"This is what we called a mall. It's kind of like our own Diagon Alley, except the stores have been put inside one big building." I explained.

The next memory surrounded us in darkness until one wall suddenly lit up. A big screen was in front of us, and on the screen was the image of an eleven year old Harry Potter getting sorted into Gryffindor. Salazar heard him arguing with the hat about not wanting to go into Slytherin.

"There was a good reason for him not to go into your house Sal." My voice made Salazar stop talking. "You might understand better if you read the book, or saw the full movie." I rubbed my chin with thought when the memory screen fazed and we were given the image of Harry Potter down in the Chamber of Secrets talking with Tom Riddle.

The founders were silent throughout the small clips from each Harry Potter movie. We were suddenly brought out of the memories.

Rowena spoke first. "Those images from the memories." She looked at me, "They took place in Hogwarts?"

I nodded, "Yes they did."

"And that boy, with the Lightning bolt scar, that was his life story?" I nodded again.

"His life has not happened yet has it?" Her voice was gentle, but I still tensed up.

"No. It hasn't." I tilted my head, "How did you know?"

"We make sure to keep track of who teaches here at Hogwarts." Salazar took over the conversation. "We know now that the current headmaster is one Armando Dippet. The headmaster for the boy was Albus Dumbledore, who is currently working as the transfiguration teacher. It would mean the things we saw were future events."

"And that means you know what looks to be a future wizarding war." Helga was looking at me with compassion. "That is a big burden you hold on your shoulders."

I shrugged. "That's alright. It's not like I can do much about it."

"But you can Danielle, you can!" The passionate words came from Godric.

"What am I supposed to do, huh? There's nothing I can do! The bastard _wants_ to be a dark lord, nothing I say would change that! And wouldn't that conversation go well? 'Hey I know your future and it turns out you become the next dark lord!' Yea that'll go well."

"Do you really know that he wants to become a dark lord?" Helga was the one who asked me.

I opened my mouth, but soon closed it. "I suppose not. I've never had the chance to talk with him and get to know him. I don't think anyone has had the chance to get to know him."

"Maybe he's lonely, and because of that it led him to the path of becoming a dark lord?" Helga suggested before she disappeared, probably back to her portrait.

I sighed, "Maybe."

"By the sounds of it, this dark lord was one of my snakes. It's possible that you might never get the chance to know him because he has built walls to protect himself from others." With that Salazar disappeared as well.

"That makes me feel better." I said sarcastically.

"Come here little lion." Godric set his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me. It was weird because it didn't feel warm or cold, just kind of there. "If you set your mind to it, then there's no doubt that you would be able to find a way to make a difference. You have the chance to stop a whole wizarding war by being here, you just have to figure out how." Godric slowly faded away.

Rowena was the last one to leave the Room. "You have the materials to stop him. You may be unable to do anything now. But you have knowledge on your side, Daniella. All you need to do is use it to the best of your abilities." and with that she faded from view.

I turned to gaze into the dancing flames of the fireplace. The founders seemed as if they wanted me to stop the future from happening, to change it. The only problem was _I didn't know how._


	9. Chapter 9

It was breakfast and I was sitting at the head table nervously picking at the food in my plate. Slughorn, who was sitting to my left, noticed my uneasiness. "Are you alright my dear?"

I gave him a sheepish smile and continued to pick at my food. "Just a little nervous I guess."

Slughorn smiled at me, "You'll be just fine my dear! Nothing to worry about." He patted my hand before returning to his own breakfast.

The reason for being nervous was because today was the end of summer break, and that meant all of the students would be returning to the castle. I wasn't sure how they would react to my presence. Especially Riddle, considering I would actually have to try and interact with him.

Besides the fact that I was going to try and get close enough to him to try and change the closer (which, by the way, I still don't know how I'm going to do) I actually _wanted_ to get to know him. What was he like? Was he different from how the movies and books portrayed him to be? Was he the same? What made him become Voldemort?

These were the questions that circled through my head as I walked up to the RoR. When I entered I wasn't surprised when the founders turned out to be absent. Ever since the night I had shown them I was from a different time and dimension I hadn't seen them. They were most likely waiting for me to come to them, but I just haven't yet.

The familiar red painted walls and roaring fireplace immediately calmed my nerves. I relaxed into the leather couch and took out my almost finished map. I set the book onto the table before clearly speaking, "Cross my heart, Hope to die, the Jester is here to mystify." It was a little wordy but I liked it. I came up with Jester from the night I opened the wolf portrait.

The books cover whipped open and the pages shuffled by until I was looking at a picture of the school grounds. I was able to add the grounds as well as the dungeons thanks to the Hogwarts map the Room kindly gave me.

I rubbed my chin because I still had to make it so I was able to see everyone in the castle. For now it was just a map.

Maybe if I connected it to the castle wards then that would help to get everyone to appear on the map. The best people to go to about the castle wards would be the founders, naturally.

I sighed _I suppose I've waited long enough._ I stood from the couch and gathered the book into my hands before turning around and stopping.

In the middle of the room there stood a pedestal. Sitting innocently on top of the pedestal was a rather thick book. I walked up to the book with cautious confusion. It hadn't been there before.

I looked at the cover and found the Hogwarts symbol staring back up at me. I opened the book and found names. A couple hundred names listed in the book. I looked through the names and found several that I recognized.

Tom Riddle, Charlus Potter, Abraxas Malfoy, Minerva Mcgonagall, Alphard Black, I recognized others last names as well like Weasely, and Rosier. There was a Diggory as well. Next to all of the names were addresses that I assumed was where they all lived.

I looked at the book for awhile before finally realizing this was the Book of Names. This was the book that was used to write out the Hogwarts letters every eleven year old in Britain would receive. At least I think it's throughout all of Britain. I thought.

I didn't know why the room would bring up this book but I remembered my own book. I opened it again and tried to figure out how to make it so that the spells used on the Book could be used on my map.

"You could ask for help." Used to Salazar's sudden appearances I casually glanced at him before returning my attentions to the two books.

"No thanks Sal. I want to be able to say I did this all by myself." My eyes flicked to him as I waited for the parchment I fished out of my bag to finish listing down every spell used on the Book of Names. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"It's been a while since we last saw you and we were wondering what happened to you."

I smirked at him and raised an eyebrow, "Why Salazar, did you miss me?" I batted my eyes innocently at him.

He sniffed in what sounded like distain, but I knew it was fake. "I did nothing of the sort. Gryffindor wouldn't stop pestering me about you."

"Oh?" I looked over the list to hopefully find the spell I was looking for. "If he was the one pestering, then why isn't he here?" When he said nothing I knew I had caught him.

"I'll be honest Sal I missed you too." One spell caught my eye and I pointed my wand to my map "Homonculous" **(AN: Not the spells incantation, it's just what it's called.)**

I looked at the book for any possible changes. I didn't see any and flipped the page to the other floors, but still saw nothing. I was going to try another spell when I caught a small bit of movement. My eyes immediately zoomed in on the movement and saw, clear as day, a set of footprints labelled as one Horace Slughorn heading towards the dungeons. I tracked his progress until he entered his office. I was beyond excited at this point and flipped to find Armando Dippet sitting in the headmasters office.

My book snapped shut and I jumped all around the room. I ran up to Salazar and gave him the biggest bear hug I could muster. He awkwardly patted my back, "I assume you are done with your map?"

I let him go, but didn't lose my excited smile, "Not quite, I have to add a few more things." Reseating myself on the leather couch I opened my book up to the map of the grounds. I held all of the blank pages I hadn't used against the books cover before pointing my wand and putting a simple sticking charm onto it. I closed the book, and when I opened the cover it went straight to the grounds page. The blank parchment successfully stuck together. I did the same thing with the back of the book so the only moveable pages were the ones I had mapped out Hogwarts on.

With my wand still pointed at the book I added another spell against the Aparecuim spell. I didn't want just anybody to be able to get into my book, on the off chance they were able to use my password. "My promise is done, but the fun has just begun." The book snapped shut, but this time without the shuffling pages. Considering I stuck them together.

When I tried to open the book it proved futile. It was as if I had just glued the whole book together instead of just those blank pages. I set the book on the table and looked at the blank front cover. I had to put something on there and I knew what I wanted.

With the tip of my wand pressed against the book I imagined exactly what I wanted. I closed my eyes so I could get a better image. It would be labelled as The Jesters Joke in gold writing. I figured Joke would be best because it started with a J, and Jesters always played jokes and what not. Underneath the words I, naturally, had a picture of a black wolf sitting proudly with its head held high. Its tail wagged slowly and occasionally blinked it's purple eyes. I knew if someone found it, and they were smart, they would know it was mine. It's not likely they would even know what the book was anyway so it was alright.

I opened my eyes and looked down at the books cover to find the image from my mind had copied down exactly as I wished it to. I smiled, "Thank you, my magic." I felt it's response run through me as it always did.

I put the book into my bag and realized Salazar was still there. I turned to him, "Now I am done." The pedestal and the Book of Names was no longer there.

He nodded, "That's good. You have just enough time to get to the great hall before the sorting." His calm voice was the exact opposite of what I felt.

"What?!" I almost shrieked the word as I raced out of the RoR. I sprinted through the Barnabas tapestry and followed the tunnel all the way to the ground floor where I came outings a room of staircases.

Hearing loud noises coming from the other side of a door I looked out and realized this was the staircases the teachers use. The room I was looking into was the Great Hall and the normally empty tables were filled with children from twelve to seventeen. The eleven year olds had yet to be sorted. I could tell because they were standing in front of the head table, waiting to be sorted.

I saw Dumbledore standing next to an old wooden stool, holding the familiar sorting hat and the list of names. His eyes were flitting around the room and he looked a little nervous. I realized he was nervous because he was looking for me. I had disappeared all day and they probably couldn't find me. I didn't know how to get his attention. Yelling out his name would draw attention and I didn't want that. I would get enough of it when he introduced me to all the students.

I looked at the head table and saw professor Kettleburn sitting at the very end. He was much closer to me than Dumbledore. "Professor!" I hissed out the word, but it didn't seem to be enough.

"Professor Kettleburn!" I knew he heard me because his eyes started looking around the room instead of gazing off into space. "Professor over here!" His eyes snapped to me and I saw his relax slightly. He turned to the teacher next to him, probably to tell them he had found me. The information was passed down until Dippet had finally heard it and that's when he stood up.

The students immediately stopped talking when they saw him stand. "I welcome you all to another year at Hogwarts. I hope you enjoyed your break." He waited for the murmurs of agreement before continuing, "It is time to sort our newcomers," he gestured to the eleven year olds, "before we start the welcoming feast!" He sat down and the attention turned to the little firsties about to be sorted. _I suppose, technically, I'm a firstie._

As the list went on I never recognized any of the names, and as the last kid went up to be sorted into Hufflepuff Dumbledore rolled up the list and picked up the stool. He brought it over and opened the door I was standing behind. He set them in there with me and gave me a reassuring smile before he returned to hi place in front of the head table.

He sat in his chair and Dippet rose again. "Before we begin the feast there is one more student to be introduced. Miss Danielle Abby has come here from America," the information caused whispers to break out and Dippet raised his voice to silence them, "and has been staying here at Hogwarts throughout the break. She is going to be joining the fifth years and has been sorted into Gryffindor." The announcement caused the Gryffindor table to burst into applause.

Dippet turned and looked at the door I was standing behind, signaling me to come out and introduce myself. I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. Everyone's eyes snapped to me, and I took another shaky breath before steeling myself and walking confidently along the head table and standing across from Dippet.

He nodded and smiled to me before holding his hand out towards the sea of students. I turned around and looked at everyone's staring faces. When they saw my purple eyes they stared at them, mesmerized.

A wolf whistle broke the silence and I looked to see who had done it. It was a Gryffindor with messy brown hair and hazel eyes looking at me from behind a pair of glasses. If I didn't know any better I would have thought I was looking at Harry Potter. But I did know better. _This must be that Charlus Potter I saw in the Book of Names._

I did nothing but raise an eyebrow at him before calmly walking towards the table. One of them noticed me looking for a seat and she waved me over to join her. When I sat across the table from her I whispered, "Thank you." She smiled at me and whispered back, "No problem."

We turned our attention to see Dippet standing up once again to announce, "Now that that is settled. Let the feast begin!" He clapped his hands and the buffet of food appeared before us.

I started setting some things on my plate and noticed my goblet had its usual water in it. I smiled at the fact Hatty was still able to give me water instead of pumpkin juice.

"So," I looked up at the girl who had waved me down, "America huh?"

I knew everybody's attention was on us, even though they feigned conversation with the friends around them. I rolled my eyes and answered anyway, "Yes."

She nodded, "I can hear your accent."

I smiled at her, "Accent? Your the one with an accent." She, and a few other people, laughed at that.

When she stopped laughing she held her hand out to me, "Minerva Mcgonagall."

I didn't hesitate to take her hand, "Danielle Abby, as you know."

When she retracted her hand I couldn't help but observe her. She still had her hair up in a bun, but there was no hat on top of her head. Her hair wasn't the grey color from the movies but a shiny black color. Her face was young and held no wrinkles. Good thing too or else I would have been worried.

"They said you were here in the castle these past two months?" she inquired.

I nodded and swallowed my mashed potatoes before speaking, "Yup. I've been learning the curriculum."

"Was it different from your schools?"

I smiled mysteriously, "You could say that." I decided to interrupt any more possible questions she could ask me. "Are you a fifth year as well?"

She shook her head negatively. "Nope, a sixth year."

I nodded and noticed a small badge pinned to her robes. I pointed it out, "What's that?"

She looked down to see what I was talking about, "Oh! That's a prefects badge. You know what a prefect is I assume?" I nodded to show her that I did, in fact, know what a prefect was.

We continued eating in silence until Minerva whispered to me, "Potter is staring at you."

I feigned confusion. "Who?"

"The one who whistled at you earlier. His name is Charlus Potter. He's the Potter families heir." She continued to whisper as if to not draw attention.

I looked down the table to see that Potter was, indeed, staring back at me. He smiled at me and winked.

My response of course was to flip him off. I never did like it when guys tried to be flirty. It never failed to irritate me.

He looked at me in surprise and his friends all laughed at him. Anyone else who saw it were laughing as well. The other tables looked to see what the fuss was about but soon went back to what they were doing. Didn't stop them from not-so-secretly staring at me.

Minerva was chuckling, "I can't believe you did that. Most girls would blush and either turn away or bat their eyelashes."

I shrugged unperturbed, "I guess it's cause I'm American." We laughed together before finishing up the rest of our meal, casual small talk filled up any silence.

The food disappeared soon enough and I looked up to see Diplet standing once again. "I once again welcome you all to another year here at Hogwarts. I hope it will be as successful as the last." I barely contained my snort at that statement, knowing Riddle was going to release a basilisk. "Prefects! Please show the students to their common rooms. I wish you all the best of luck for your classes tomorrow."

That was the signal for everyone to disperse. Minerva looked at me and sheepishly gestured to her prefect badge, "I have to go."

I waved her off, "Don't worry about it. I'll see you up there."

I followed the group of Gryffindor's up to the seventh floor where the prefects, Minerva and surprisingly Potter, turned around and addressed the group. "This is the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. To enter you will have to speak the password which would be changed every month. To get the new password find either me or Potter and we will tell you." Minerva turned around and addressed the fat lady, "Quagswagging."

The painting swung open and we all filed inside. As I passed the fat lady I waved at her with a smile, she returned the gesture before shutting.

The first years were stopped by the prefects, most likely so they can be told the layout of the common room and some castle rules or something.

Lounging on one of the common room couches by the fire I took out a book on the patronus charm I had borrowed from the library. I knew what was needed to cast the charm but I wanted to be sure.

"Er, 'ello." I looked away from my book to find the owner of the voice. My eyes traveled up, and up, until I met the beetle black eyes of a scruffy boy. Although his eyes were black they shone with nothing but kindness. And his hair was messy and short, it didn't even touch his shoulders.

"Hello." I smiled back at him and it seemed to make him relax. "Can I help you with something?"

"Would ye mind if I joined ya?"

"Not at all!" I pulled my knees up against me and allowed him to sit on the couch with me. His sudden weight made the couch give an ominous creak and my side of the couch tilted up a bit. But it was enough to make me tumble right into the boys shoulder.

He started apologizing immediately and started to get up. "Ah'm sorry ah'm sorry! I didn't mean tah!" He stopped apologizing when he heard me start laughing.

"It's fine, really!" I adjusted myself so I could lean my back against his side and stretch my legs over the arm of the chair. "This is much more comfortable." I looked at him over my shoulder and held out my hand, "I'm Danielle. I'm the new fifth year."

He eventually took my hand and shook it, jostling my whole arm. "Mah names Hagrid. I'm ah third year."

Considering his appearance and speech I should have seen that coming. "It's wonderful to meet you Hagrid." I returned my attention to my book and I noticed everybody in the common room staring at me and Hagrid.

"What?" I asked rudely, "You've never seen people make friends before?" Everybody quickly looked away from us. I rolled my eyes and placed my book back into my bag.

"We're friends?" I looked up at Hagrid.

"Oh! I'm sorry Hagrid if you don't want to be friends then that's fine–" my babbling was interrupted by Hagrid standing from the couch, dragging me up with him and giving me a bone crushing hug. Seriously, I think I heard some of my bones creaking.

"Thank ya. I've never 'ad a friend b'fore." He sounded on the verge of tears and I awkwardly patted his side, considering I couldn't reach his back.

"You're welcome." I wheezed.

Apparently someone noticed my discomfort, "Hey Hagrid, could you put her down please?" I was never so grateful to hear Minerva's voice.

Hagrid must have noticed how his hold was affecting me because he quickly, but gently, put me back on the floor, "Sorry bout tha'."

I waved him off, "Don't worry about it." I rubbed my ribs and started for the dormitories, "See you tomorrow Hagrid, Minerva."

At the top of the stairs there was the familiar hallway of dorm rooms, only this time there were plaques on the doors. I searched down the hallway and made it to the fifth door down where I found my name along with two others, Augusta Rookwood and Annabelle Chambers. With a name like Augusta I could only thing of one person. She's Neville Longbottoms grandmother. I could only hope she wasn't as sour as she was portrayed as. As for Annabelle, I knew nothing about her.

I opened the door and saw the four beds displayed in the room. Sitting on the bed to the far right of the room sat who I assumed to be Augusta. She was rather thin, and a little on the tall side. The curtains were closed on bed next to her. When they looked up at me I saw Augusta's pinched expression. She observed me with her beady blue eyes and I observed her back.

She broke the staring contest first, "Are you one of those muggle-borns?"

I blinked once, "And if I said yes?"

She shrugged indifferently and started reading a book sitting in her lap, "Doesn't matter really. You could be taken as a pureblood with those eyes, and I know all the purebloods."

I nodded even through she couldn't see it. I decided to take he bed on the far left of the room, directly across from Augusta's.

"You never answered my question." I set my bag on the bed and looked at her.

"Hm?"

She sighed, "I asked you if you were a muggle-born. You never gave me a direct answer."

"I'm a muggle-born." _As far as you know_. I added in my head.

She nodded as if she knew all along. "We are the only fifth year Gryffindor girls. If you need help with anything you can come to us." with that she closed her own curtains.

I took out my trunk and set it at the end of the bed to enlarge it. Seeing the image of the Morrickson family wolf I knew Augusta would most likely recognize it. I cast a disillusionment charm to prevent them from seeing it.

"Sorry about her." I looked at the bed, that once had the curtains drawn closed, and saw an unfamiliar girl looking back at me. She had curly brown hair and kind brown eyes. "I'm Annabelle Chambers, by the way."

I smiled at her, "Danielle Abby."

She returned the smile. "I'm a muggleborn as well. She asked me the same question when we met. I hadn't understood what she meant at first. It wasn't a good start to the relationship."

"Are you two friends?"

Annabelle laughed, "More or less. When I need help with something she'll help me, and on the occasion she needs help I will help her." She bade me a final "Goodnight" before closing her bed curtains once again.

I returned to my trunk and changed into my pajamas before climbing into bed. I drew my curtains shut and Basil slithered herself onto the pillow next to my head. I put a sticking charm on the curtains and had Hatty make sure the other girls didn't open my curtains, I didn't want them seeing Basil. Who knew what they would do. Especially Augusta.

I set the alarm clock on my nightstand to wake me up before I fell into a peaceful sleep, wondering what the next day would bring.


	10. Chapter 10

I was walking throughout the passageways of the castle. I didn't want to really interact with others just yet. I was always on my own in the orphanage, and over the summer here at Hogwarts I was alone as well–except for the teachers of course.

I was happy to have met Minerva and Hagrid. Two of my favorite characters from the movies. The only person I was reluctant to meet was Riddle, mostly because I wouldn't know what to do if we started talking. He would most likely have some kind of mask to hide his real personality. It would be weird and just downright suspicious for me to ask him to drop the act and be himself. We've never met before–well, there was that one time in Flourish & Blotts but he didn't know that was me. And if I told him that I knew he was acting he would do…something not good.

My map was out and I was flipping the pages between floors leisurely. Right now I was just pacing around the ground floor, waiting for breakfast to start, when I turned the page to the dungeons. I would have continued to the next page when a familiar name caught my eye. Charlus Potter.

I stopped walking and furrowed my brows at the name _Why would he be in the dungeons? _I resumed walking and saw another name in front of Potter's, Antonin Dolohov.

Dolohov was a Slytherin, that much I knew. What I didn't understand was why him and Potter were interacting. I would have figured that because Charlus was a Gryffindor he wouldn't want much to do with Slytherins. Maybe they were friends or something.

I wound my way through the passages until I came upon the corridor they were in. One exit from the passage was almost right next to them, and I didn't want them to see the coming out from behind a portrait.

Another exit was thankfully in another corridor just around the corner from Potter and Dolohov's location. I walked out from behind the set of armor and made a note to remember the location of the passage entrance incase I needed the information later.

I peeked around the corner to look down the corridor where Potter and Dolohov were talking. And by talking I meant Dolohov was pressed up against the wall with Potters wand pointed threateningly at his neck.

I put a silencing charm on my shoes and a notice-me-not on myself so they wouldn't see me come up. Even with the spells in place I was careful not to make any noises. As I got closer I saw Dolohov glaring at Potter, which was entirely reasonable considering Potter had him at wand point. I was able to hear their conversation now that I was only about two yards away.

"Don't bother denying it Dolohov, I saw you looking at her. Along with all of your Slytherin buddies." hissed Potter.

I shook my head at the Gryffindor. Of all things to get worked up over it was for a girl.

"In case you didn't notice, Potter," drawled Dolohov, "everybody in the great hall was looking at her. It's not often, if ever, that Hogwarts gets a new student."

When Dolohov said that I realized they were talking about me. I looked at Potter and saw him glaring heatedly at Dolohov. I could see the contrast between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Dolohov was upset with the situation but he didn't show his anger anywhere in his posture, instead he chose to glare at Potter and he seemed to be egging him on if his comment was anything to go by.

And Potter "Shut up Dolohov!" was letting his emotions get to him. In his anger Potter didn't notice Dolohov discretely taking out his wand. He on,y noticed when Dolohov pushed him away and pointed his wand at him.

I thought this was a wonderful time to intervene before they started dueling in the middle of the corridor. I dropped the spells I had placed on myself and pointed my wand at the two of them, "Expelliarmus."

Their wands went flying out of their hands towards me, and I caught them before they could hit me over the head. I shoved the wands, including mine, into my bag before crossing my arms and looking up at them.

They were looking at me with surprise. At least Potter was, Dolohov was able to hide his surprise. "We haven't even been here a day and you two are already trying to duel each other." I shook my head in disappointment.

"You don't understand Dani! I caught this slimy snake sneaking around down here–"

"And what were _you_ doing down here?" I decided to let the Dani nickname slide. "I suppose you decided to take a stroll around the castle and ended up from the seventh floor all the way down here in the dungeons, where you knew these 'slimy snakes' live."

Potter had nothing to say to that and it seemed he decided to try something else, "Look Dani, you're new and because of that you don't know how the Slytherins are." He pressed a hand to his chest, "Thankfully I am here to help you learn about how slimy these snakes are."

I pursed my lips and gave Dolohov a good once-over. I was never one of those girls who would scope out which guy was the cutest or which one I would date, but I had to admit, Dolohov was pretty cute. He had icy blue eyes, and a button nose with freckles shattered here and there. He had a square chin and rather effeminate lips. His skin was pale. It was as if he barely ever went outside, the only evidence he ever did were his freckles. He had a hat covering his straw blonde hair. Why he had a hat on, I don't know.

I shrugged and looked back at Potter, "He doesn't look that slimy to me. He actually looks pretty cute." I admitted.

Dolohov smirked at me while Potter stood there gaping like a fish. "You'll catch flies that way you know." I pointed out.

He snapped his mouth shut, but he wasn't done speaking, "He is not cute!" He would have said more but I stopped him.

"Well I'm glad you think so. If you had agreed with me I would have been a little worried."

I could see Dolohov's lips twitching as he held back his amusement. Potter, however, didn't see the amusement. "You wouldn't understand matters like these. Why don't you give me my wand back and I can teach this snake a lesson"

Potters tone irritated me and I walked right up to him. He obviously expected me to give him his wand back and stuck his hand out, waiting for me to give him his wand. I smiled sweetly at him and shot my hand out and pinched his ear before twisting it. Potters whole body cringed with continuous mantras of "Ow!" and "Let go!"

"Do not treat me like I am stupid." I hissed.

His only answer was the continued exclaim actions of pain, only now he was adding "I'm sorry".

A scoff was heard beside me, "Reduced to begging by a useless mudblood." Without even looking I shot my arm out and twisted Dolohov's ear between my fingers. The only noise he made was a grunt of pain and a small grimace.

"Well this mudblood has just brought you to your knees." Following my words I twisted his ear even more and pushed him to his knees.

I released Potter and shoved him away, "Get out of here, and hope you don't run into me again."

"But my wand–"

"GO!" Potter didn't stay any longer and ran down the corridor. I would have Hatty give it to him during breakfast.

"As for you." I dragged Dolohov up and started walking deeper into the dungeons, "here I am, defending you out of my own free will, and you go and insult me." I shook my head, "You could have stayed quiet until the end of the conversation when I would have given you your wand back, but _nooo_, you decided to open your mouth."

"I didn't need your help." he gritted out between his teeth.

"And when, during that whole confrontation, did I help you?" I didn't wait for his answer, "Exactly, I didn't. I stopped the two of you from fighting over something as stupid as 'a new student' which I will assume is me." I started muttering to myself as we approached the entrance to the Slytherin common room. "Boys fight over the stupidest things I swear."

I found the expanse of wall where I knew the entrance to the Slytherin common room was located. I only knew it was the right wall because Salazar told me there would be a very detailed looking snake near the bottom right corner of the wall. It was thankfully easy to spot.

I cleared my throat, "If you would be so kind as to allow me entrance." The wall slid open and I walked in with my head held high, Dolohov still trailing behind me with his ear twisted between my fingers. A perk to being friends with Salazar was that he made it so I was allowed into the common room without needing to speak the password, just ask. How he did it I don't know, probably some kind of parseltongue.

There were Slytherins scattered around the common room, I figured they were getting ready to go to breakfast. When they saw me, the new girl, walking through the common room dragging Dolohov by the ear, all of the talking stopped as they turned to watch what I was doing.

I walked up to the circle of dark green leather couches placed in front of the common rooms fireplace, and I saw none other than Riddle sitting imperiously on one of the chairs, twirling his wand in his hand as he watched my approach.

I walked up and stood in front of Riddle before giving Dolohov's ear one final twist before letting him go. He stumbled away from me and collapsed on the nearby sofa, rubbing his ear as he glared at me. I never once looked away from Riddle, but I made sure to keep my gaze to the left of his eyes, not wanting him to use legilimency on me. _I'll have to start learning my Occlumency._

"I found this little snake lost and unfortunately pinned to a wall by Charlus Potter." I spoke calmly.

"I was not pinned to the wall." I had apparently taken a blow at his pride.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically, "Would you like to see a memory of the events?" Saying that I shifted my gaze and looked directly into Riddle's. I didn't know if he was actually going to look or if I would even notice, but I could feel something brushing against my mind. I held back my creeped out shiver as I showed the presence–who was obviously Riddle–the memory of Dolohov clearly pinned to the wall with Potter pointing his wand at his neck.

When I knew he had seen the memory I slid my eyes away from his, looking just left of his head. "Indeed." His voice was just as smooth and dark as I remembered. Reminded me of dark chocolate actually.

"And how is it you were able to get into our common room?" Riddle asked me, "Surely Dolohov here didn't give it to you." his midnight blue eyes examining me.

"I am the reason she is able to get in here." I looked up above the fireplace where the voice had originated from, and found a portrait of Salazar sitting in a throne like chair with a snake draped over the back.

I smiled, "Salazar! I didn't even know you were there!"

"Yes, well you never were very observant we're you?" To anyone else he would have sounded condescending, but I knew he was actually a little amused.

"I suppose I'm not am I? But you love me anyway."

Salazar had no answer for me and I continued my smiling until he broke the surrounding silence, "How do you like the common room? You never would come down here."

"It's cold, and it's dark. Don't get me wrong it's beautiful in here but geez, come winter time and I wouldn't be surprised if icicles started forming on the ceiling."

Salazar scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous. There are charms throughout the rooms that prevent that from happening."

"That's great. Maybe next time you can make sure they take care of this lingering cold. Look at me!" I rolled up my sleeve and held it up towards Salazar, "I have goosebumps!"

Now Salazar rolled his eyes, "Put on a warming charm."

"You are such a snake." I shook my head at him. Adjusting my bag I remembered I still had Dolohov's wand. I dug through my bag before I produced all three wands. I took mine and stuck it into my wand holster and held out the other two wands. "Which ones yours?"

Dolohov was looking at me like I had grown two heads, but he reached out and took the darker colored wand from my hands. I nodded and put Potter's wand into my bag.

I looked up so I could make my way out of the common room and found everyone's eyes trained on me exactly like Dolohov's. Riddle was the only one hiding his reaction with a blank face.

"What are you all looking at huh?!" It was Salazar who got everyone to look away. "That's what I thought."

I laughed and started to leave the Slytherin common room, "Thanks Sal." I waved without looking back at him.

"Will we see you tonight?" He called back to me.

I tilted my head and turned to look at him, "I don't see why not." Before I slipped out of the common room.

Once I was out of the common room I calmly took out my book map, "Cross my heart, hope to die, the Jester is here to mystify." The book automatically flipped open to the dungeons. I found the nearest entrance to a secret passage before breaking out into a sprint and reaching a portrait of a woman brushing her hair. "Jester" I breathed to her.

The portrait swung open and I slipped inside before spit shut. I decided to use Jester for the passwords. I looked down at my book and took the route that would bring me closest to the Great Hall.

I made it to the Hall in about five minutes. Before I stepped out I called for Hatty. "Can you get this to Charlus Potter without him seeing you?" I handed her his wand.

"Yes! Hatty's be willing to help her mistress!" and with that she popped away.

I stepped out of the passage and was in time to close the entrance before Annabelle came around the corner. I muttered, "My promise is done, but the fun has just begun." The book snapped closed and I shoved it into my bag.

"Hey Annabelle."

"Hey! I didn't see you this morning, where were you?" She seemed concerned.

I just shrugged. "Nowhere special. I just wanted to take a small walk before classes, you know? Sorry if I worried you."

She waved off my apology, "Don't worry about it, I was just wondering."

We entered the Great Hall together and I saw Hagrid sitting a little ways away from all the others. I instantly felt bad, I mean how can anyone not want to hang out with Hagrid? He was like a giant puppy.

"Hey, do you mind if I catch up with you later?" I asked Annabelle.

"Sure why?"

I gestured to Hagrid, "My new friend is all alone. You can join us if you want?"

She wrinkled her nose. "No thanks. You would be smart to stay away from him. He's a half-giant of all things! Always talks to you about magical creatures, dangerous ones at that!"

I gave her a sneer Salazar would have been proud of, "Do not talk about him like that. He could be half-turtle and I would still be friends with him." I stalked away from her. _What is with these people and trying to tell me what to do?_

I dropped into the seat across from Hagrid and wiped any trace of my previous displeasure from my face. "Hi Hagrid!" I said brightly.

Hagrid looked up, startled. When he saw it was me he relaxed a little bit, but he still seemed surprised I was actually sitting with him. "Hello."

I started putting some food onto my plate, "So how are you doing this morning?" I took a bite of some bacon as I looked up for Hagrids answer.

"It's been alrigh'." his voice was a little uneasy. Obviously his morning was not as alright as he wanted me to believe. I would have asked him what was wrong but Minerva came up and walked past me, "You better hurry Danielle, classes start in five minutes. That goes for you too Hagrid." and she continued in her way.

I looked around the Great Hall and found that it was almost empty. I quickly gathered my bag up and checked my schedule. It seemed my first class would be potions. "See you later Hagrid!" With the potions classroom all the way down in the dungeons I was thankful I knew about the secret passages that could get me there in at least two minutes.

When I reached the potions classroom door I was able to slip in at the same moment the bell rang, signaling the beginning of classes. I looked around the full classroom and spotted Slughorn at his desk up front. "Morning professor. Am I too late?"

"Not at all miss Abby! There's a seat still open next to Tom there." In the back corner of the room Tom Riddle calmly stood with all of the potion supplies set up on the desk. I didn't have much of a choice so I joined Riddle at the table.

"Morning." I mumbled to him. Slughorn was at the front of the room, his jovial voice explaining to them how to make their potion. Riddle just nodded in response.

After Slughorn wrote the ingredients they needed on the board I finally looked over at Riddle, "You want to get them or shall I?" he didn't respond.

I waited for him to do something, anything. A nod would have sufficed, but he did nothing. He just stood there until he looked over at me, "Are you going to go get the necessary ingredients or not?"

My brow raised at his thinly veiled command, "Maybe if you ask nicely." I crossed my arms and waited for him to either get them himself or actually set aside his pride and ask me nicely.

If Riddle wasn't so bent on keeping his polite mask on he probably would be glaring at me right now. I could practically hear him grinding his teeth together, "Will you be so kind as to get the ingredients for the potion?"

"Of course! Why didn't you just say so?" I left our table and went to the cabinet that held all the different kinds of potion ingredients for the classes use.

I returned to the table and set out the ingredients. I passed Riddle the salamander blood, "You want to add the blood?" I put two scoops of standard ingredients into the cauldron and looked at Riddle expectantly when he stood there and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, as if surprised I had told/ordered him to do something. "Well hop to it! This potion won't make itself you know."

He still didn't move and it was starting to irritate me a little, "I'm not doing this potion myself you know." Nothing. _Looks like I'll have to go a Slytherin route._ "Alright let's do this. You're going to help me because you won't accept anything less than an O, and because I will answer any questions you might have, to the best of my abilities."

Riddle took the salamander blood and added six drops into the cauldron, "Any question?"

I nodded and stirred the potion clockwise three times, "To the best of my ability."

Riddle lowered the temperature of the cauldron to low and we waited for ten minutes. Riddle used the time to start his questions, "This morning in the common room you talked to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin."

"Yea so?" I shrugged, not seeing the big deal.

"Not only did you get into the common room without a password, but you talked to Salazar Slytherin."

"I'm not seeing the question here Riddle." I sighed impatiently.

"My point is, Slytherin talks to no one. He just sits in the portrait and watches everyone in the room. The fact that you were talking to him like you were old friends and for him to respond in the same way, it was quite a surprise." He paused to check how much time had passed before asking his question. "What I want to know is how you two have become so familiar with one another. Especially with you being a Gryffindor."

"Well," I sighed, "when we met the first time I was pretty surprised. I didn't even know who he was at first until he started hissing at me in what I assume was parseltongue. After that I tried to ignore his presence but he never left me alone."

"How would he have the chance to bother you? This morning it seemed that that was the first time you ever entered the Slytherin common room, considering he asked you what you thought of the room."

_Damn him and his perceptiveness._ "You're right, that was the first time I've been in the Slytherin common room. I met Salazar somewhere else."

Riddle couldn't ask anything more because the bell rang, signaling the end of class. I collected my bag and looked at Riddle, "Maybe another time, yeah?" I smiled at him and swiftly left the classroom.

Our next potions class together was sure to be interesting.


	11. Chapter 11

_"~Parseltongue~"_

* * *

><p>I was standing in the Room of Requirement trying to think of a happy memory I could use, but I couldn't seem to find the right one.<p>

"Expecto Patronum!" My wand was pointed out in front of me and all it was able to emit was a puff of blue mist before the spell failed all together. I rubbed my temples, unsurprised that I had failed the spell. I have been trying it all day and my only progress was the mist.

My memories obviously weren't happy enough to be able to produce the desired corporeal patronus. It's not like you get many happy memories when growing up in an orphanage.

I've tried using the memory of when I first came here, but that didn't work. I tried one where I used magic for the first time, I tried using when I met the founders, the one where I was able to produce the mist was the one with me making my first friends out of Minerva and Hagrid.

I thought as hard as I could and remembered back to when I was a little girl. I was only about four, and I was digging out presents from under the Christmas tree. I remember unwrapping the gift to reveal some stuffed toy and looking up to smile at my parents. They were sitting on the couch and looking back at me lovingly. My mothers stomach was large, as it was getting closer to my brothers birth date. The memory of all of us still together as a loving family never failed to make me smile.

Gripping my wand I thought hard about that Christmas all those years ago, making sure the memory was clear as I could make it.

"Expecto Patronum" I whispered.

Thick mist exploded out of my wand and gathered into the air. It began stretching and flowing one way before quickly changing its pattern, as if unsure what it was trying to change into before a brilliant blue light burst from inside of the gathered mist. I shielded my eyes until the bright light died down. I looked at where the mist once was but found nothing. I felt disappointed at another failure when I felt something land on my shoulder.

I cautiously looked at my shoulder to find blue talons gripping at my shirt. My eyes traveled further up to find wings and its chest proudly puffed out. Further up was a long hooked beak. I held out my arm and the large bird hopped from my shoulder and onto my forearm.

It's head was examining the room looking for any signs of danger before it slowly faded away. I furrowed my brows in thought. The only bird I knew of that was big enough and had the same type of beak was a bald eagle.

"Expecto Patronum." My voice was firm and this time instead of just a mass of mist the bird burst out of my wand. I watched it soar around the room, looking for any danger, before it faded away once again.

By the way it flew and how it looked I could tell that the bird was, in fact, a bald eagle. I sighed with happiness and relief. Relief because I no longer had to focus so much on trying to perfect my patronus, and happiness because the fact it was an eagle reminded me of America.

I sat on the couch and took out a sheet of parchment. On the sheet of parchment were the things I've wanted to accomplish now that I'm actually at Hogwarts.

_To Do:_

_Learn magic_

_Make my own Marauders Map_

_Get a corporeal patronus_

_Learn occlumency_

_Become an Animagus_

It wasn't a very long list I admit, but those were really the only things I have ever wanted to do or learn if I had the chance to go to Hogwarts. The occlumency was more of a precaution so nobody goes through my mind and finds out I'm from another dimension with the knowledge of a future war.

Another thing I seemed to be getting wrapped up in was trying to figure out what to do with Riddle. We had potions again in a couple hours and I knew he wasn't done questioning me. All the while I'm standing there knowing he's going to grow up and become a dark lord everybody will fear, as well as wondering if he's found the Chamber of Secrets yet.

I checked the time and decided if I wanted to make it to potions I should start heading down there now. I left the RoR and started jogging through the hallways. There was enough time for me to make it down to the dungeons that I didn't need to go through any secret passages.

I made it down to the fifth floor and was walking down the empty corridor when I heard something next to me. It was like something very large, and very heavy, was sliding over the stones of the castle. A voice accompanied the sliding noise.

_"~Rip…Tear…Kill…~"_

By continuously talking to Salazar and Basil I was able to determine that this voice was definitely speaking in parseltongue. I looked at the wall next to me with wide eyes and fumbled to get my book out of my bag.

"CrossmyhearthopetodietheJesterisheretomystify" I rushed out the words and was never so frustrated to have such a long password.

The book flipped open to reveal the fifth floor. I found exactly where I was standing, but I definitely wasn't alone. In the wall next to me there was a passage way that should have been empty. But instead I found a single name floating over an odd squiggle just sitting in the passage. The name over the squiggle read Anastasia.

Another name on the map caught my eye and I looked to find none other then Annabelle in the middle of the corridor around the corner.

I quickly turned the corner and looked to find her, not standing and walking as I assumed her to be, but laying out on the floor. I closed my book and shoved it into my bag as I rushed over to her still form.

She was laying on her back, one hand in her hair as if fixing it and her other arm outstretched in front of her. In her hand was a little compact mirror and I assumed she had been fixing her hair.

Her eyes were wide open and she was looking into her mirror. I gently shook her and was worried when I received no response. I was quickly starting to panic, sure she was dead, when I heard another sibilant voice right next to my ear.

_"~She is still alive Master~"_

Hearing the voice so similar to the one from the wall I jumped and whipped my he'd to see Basils head poking out from underneath my shirts collar.

Relief flooded me when I saw it wasn't the Basilisk. _"~How can you tell?~"_ after my question I thought I heard something from the walls again but when I listened for anything else it was silent.

_"~I can hear her heart pumping faintly, and hear her blood rushing through her veins.~"_

I released a shaky breath, thankful she was alive and a little creeped out by Basil's description. _"~Thank you Basil.~" _Basils head retracted into my shirt and she wrapped herself around my torso. After a close call with Dumbledore almost seeing her when my sleeve had rolled up I made her stay around my torso instead.

Knowing she was only petrified made me feel a little better, but this answered my question about when the chamber would be opened. I felt kinda bad it was Annabelle, but ever since that morning when she told me to stay away from Hagrid we haven't spoken since.

This also made me realize that the voice I had heard from the wall was most likely the basilisk, and I had been standing right next to it. _"~Kin…Blood…~"_ and the voice I was now currently hearing told me the basilisk was still in the corridor surrounding me and Annabelle.

The bell for classes rang and I knew I wasn't going to be attending potions. Instead I pulled out my wand, "Expect Patronum."

The wispy blue eagle formed on the floor beside me. "Would you able to send a message for me?" He ruffled his wings and bones his head.

"Alright, send this to proffessor Slughorn down in the dungeons." I cleared my throat, "Professor, it's Danielle. I'm sorry for not coming to class but I seem to have stumbled across Annabelle Chamber's…well, I've found her body. But don't worry she's alive! Just kinda, ah, paralyzed?" This was not going as I wanted it to. "I'm going to bring her to the hospital wing–"

I probably would have continued but a loud hiss echoed from the walls. "Shit!" I waved away my eagle patronus and watched it fly quickly down the corridor towards the moving staircases.

I wasn't sure how magic would affect Annabelle while she was in her petrified state, so I wrapped my arms around her waist and hoisted her into a standing position. I steadied her when she threatened to topple back over. Setting my hands on her waist I lifted her until I was able to situate her over my shoulder. The sudden weight almost made my knees buckle, but I determinedly straightened out and shuffled my way down to the Hospital wing.

* * *

><p>Down in the dungeons professor Slughorn was walking around his classroom, making sure his students followed the correct steps to successfully make their potions.<p>

He reached the table where his two most successful students were working together to make this potion. He couldn't wait to see how their potion would turn out. Only when he reached the table only one student stood there working on the potion.

"Tom! Where's Miss Abby?"

"I'm not sure professor. Nobody has seen her all morning, she wasn't at breakfast." It was then that a blue form burst into the classroom and flew around the room, gaining everyone's attention before the form landed on the desk I front of Slughorn and next to Riddle.

The eagle ruffled its wings before a familiar female voice emitted from the bird, _"Professor, it's Danielle. I'm sorry for not coming to class but I seem to have stumbled across Annabelle Chamber's…well, I've found her body. But don't worry she's alive! Just kinda, ah, paralyzed?"_ There was a slight pause where Daniella gave a small huff _"I'm going to bring her to the hospital wing–"_ her voice was cut off by a very loud hissing noise that sent shivers down everyone's spine, followed by her exclamation of _"Shit!"_

The bird then faded away and the class descended into a thick silence. Nobody moved as they forgot about their potions and waited to see what Slughorn would do.

Slughorn cleared his throat, "Alright everyone class will be ending early today, please put a stasis charm over your potions and return to your common rooms." With that Slughorn quickly made his way out of the classroom.

The Gryffindor and Slytherin students made no objections to ending the class early as they made their way out of the class. Each one talking to their friends about what had happened and what that scary hissing noise was.

Out of all the students there was one who quietly broke off from the others. Now alone he narrowed his eyes. He knew exactly what had happened. That Chamber girl had been petrified by the basilisk and Abby had found her in the corridor. Why the basilisk didn't kill Abby, he didn't know, and he didn't like not knowing. Was Abby not a mudblood as well?

Tom Riddle supposed it was a good thing she wasn't killed. _After all _he thought as he entered the second floor girls bathroom _I still have questions for her._

* * *

><p>I was huffing and puffing by the time I made it down to the Hospital wing. Not in the mood for knocking I burst through the doors yelling out for "Healer Burns!" <strong>(AN: Don't know the actual healers name.)<strong>

I quickly went to the nearest bed ant dropped Annabelle's body onto the mattress. "Healer Burns!"

Coming out of her office as quick as she could was the Hospital wing's healer Catherine Burns. Her short grey hair sat atop her head and she looked at me through old brown eyes. You could tell she takes her job seriously and never smiles from the feint frown marks at the corners of her mouth and between her eyebrows.

"What are you doing here?" She snapped, "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I should be yes, but on my way to class but I found Annabelle in the middle of a corridor up on the fifth floor. I thought she was dead but she's not. It's like she's, I don't know, paralyzed." I knew very well that she had been petrified but I decided not to say anything.

She shooed me away from the bed holding Annabelle and she set to work finding out what was wrong with her, all the while asking me questions.

"Was this the position she was in when you found her?"

"Yes"

"Did you see what did this to her?"

"No"

"Did you do this to her?"

"No!"

Her questions were put to a stop when Dumbledore came into the Wing. "Catherine do you have any–well hello miss Abby, shouldn't you be in class?"

"It seems miss Abby here has found the petrified body of Annabelle Chambers." Healer Burns spoke before I could.

"Petrified?" Dumbledore came further into the Wing and examined Annabelle's body.

Burns turned to me next and cornered me onto a bed before she started running some tests on me. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making sure you are perfectly alright before I can let you go." She replied.

Dumbledore then joined Burns' side and asked, "My dear could I please see your wand?" I handed it to him and he waved his own wand over it before handing it back to me. A sheet of paper appeared in his hand and he read it over, "It seems that the last spell you used was the patronus charm."

I gaped at him, "You think I did this to her?"

He shook his head, "Not at all miss Abby. But you must understand I had to make sure you weren't just saying that to stay out of trouble. Who was the patronus for?"

Answering his question Slughorn burst into the Wing next and rushed over to my bedside. "Oh miss Abby! I got your patronus–very well done by the way–and came as quick as I could!"

I smiled at him, "Thank you professor, but shouldn't you be teaching?"

"I just ended the class a little early today. I had to make sure you were alright, after all."

"Horace," Dumbledore broke in, "it may be wise for Armando to be informed about this. Could you Floo call him?"

Burns led Slughorn into her office where he could use her Floo and she came back out to continue casting spells over Annabelle.

"Will she be alright?"

Burns quickly looked at me but returned her attention to Annabelle, "She should be. I can find nothing wrong with her, and if anything she should be awake right now." She sounded frustrated when she finished her sentence.

Now exiting Burns' office was Slughorn, only this time he was accompanied by headmaster Dippet. "What is going on here?"

"Well headmaster it seems miss Abby has found the petrified body of Annabelle Chamber on the fifth floor on her way to the dungeons." Dumbledore informed him.

"I see, and how is it that you came across her miss Abby?"

"Well I didn't go down to breakfast cause I'm rarely ever hungry to eat anything in the mornings. I was practicing my patronus charm in one of the empty classrooms when I decided to make my way to potions. I was on the fifth floor when I turned a corner and found Annabelle on the ground. I tried shaking her awake but it didn't work. When the bell rang I sent my patronus to professor Slughorn and after that I threw Annabelle over my shoulder and made my way here to the Hospital wing."

Dippet still had more questions, "And you didn't see what caused miss Chambers current state?"

I shook my head, "No" because technically I didn't see anything, I only heard it.

Dippet sighed, "Well then I suppose you are free to go miss Abby."

I thanked all the teachers and swiftly left the Wing. Walking through the halls I needed to find something to pass the time before my next class. I was almost to the wall where I would enter the Room of Requirement when I heard the familiar sliding and hissing sounds.

_"~Kin…Master…~"_

Hearing the voice I quickly paced in front of the wall and escaped into the one room I knew was the safest in the whole castle.


	12. Chapter 12

_Reading_

* * *

><p>It's been a few weeks since I found Annabelle petrified in the fifth floor corridor. I was–once again–sitting in the Room of Requirement. The Room seemed to be the only place I couldn't hear the quiet hisses from the walls of the castle.<p>

Ever since that day in the corridor the basilisk seemed to be following me everywhere saying the same things over and over. _Blood…Kin…Mistress…Masters Mate…_ and it was that last one that really freaked me out. I could only imagine it believed me to be any type of "kin" because it heard me speaking to Basil in parseltongue.

It worries me that the basilisk may have told Riddle it heard me speaking parseltongue. Maybe not _me_ but it heard somebody speaking parseltongue, and I knew Riddle would be smart enough to figure out that it was most likely me who was the one speaking. Who else would it have been? I was the one who found Annabelle and it was only us two in the corridor.

Whenever we were in potions class I was always partnered up with Riddle, but we always spent the class in silence. I would have thought he would keep asking me questions but apparently not. It's likely he wants to ask me questions, but he doesn't want anyone else to overhear.

I shook myself out of my thoughts to find the potion I brewed has finally cooled down. Picking up a vial sitting next to the cauldron I poured the potion into the vial until it was filled to the brim.

I rolled the potion filled vial between my fingers and took a deep breath _Lets get this over with._ Knocking back the potion I didn't even have time to gag before my body sagged to the floor and the view of my surrounding changed.

_Vision start_

_It was dark, and the only thing to be heard was the crunching of dried leaves and twigs beneath my paws. Although it was dark I could easily make out the surrounding forest. The farther I tried to look the harder it was to make out any details._

_As I ran through the forest I could smell water. The smell made me realize how thirsty I was and I changed course towards the direction of the water._

_I suddenly broke through the trees and found myself in a clearing with a large pond in the middle. Walking slowly to the pond my tongue leisurely licked my muzzle. I felt sharp teeth underneath my tongue._

_Reaching the edge of the water I brought my gaze up to the sky and saw a full moon shining back at me. The last thing I heard was the howl of a wolf before everything went dark._

_Vision end_

The ringing howl was echoing in my mind as I woke up. I blearily opened my eyes and found my cheek pressed against the wood floor of the RoR.

I pushed myself off the floor with a groan and made my way over to the couch. The Room vanished the table holding the potion I had created as I sank into the couch with a grateful groan.

I uttered a loud sigh before leaning forward over the parchment I had set out previously to finishing the potion. Taking out a quill I hurriedly wrote down everything I remembered from my vision before I could forget it.

_Four legged_

_Fur_

_Paws_

_Sharp teeth_

_Good eyesight/ hearing/ smell_

_Runs pretty fast_

I picked up the list and started paving in the middle of the room. From the characteristics I could gather it was some form of dog or large cat, but I just couldn't figure out which, I blamed it on how tired I was.

I stopped my pacing and stared blankly at the floor in thought, trying and failing to figure out what animal could have been in my vision.

My brows furrowed and I looked over the list then back at the floor. Then back to the list. Then the floor.

Staring up at me from the floor was the black wolf representing the Morrickson family. As the clues started coming together in my head I compared what I knew about wolves to the list.

Four legs? Check.

Fur? Check.

Paws? Check.

Sharp teeth? Check.

I asked the room for information on wolves. The books on the bookshelves changed, all the titles focusing on the subject of wolves. I skimmed the titles until I found one on the senses of a wolf. I plucked it from the shelf and a wooden chair appeared behind me. I sat in the chair and flipped to the first chapter of the book.

_A wolf has very keen eyesight, with excellent peripheral vision. A wolf will notice movement immediately, no matter how slight, but they are unable to focus on the details of the objects they spot. Should the object be farther away their vision will be worse._

Good eyesight? Check.

_A wolfs hearing is sharp and can hear from 6-10 miles away, depending on their surroundings. Their ears are sensitive to lower frequency sounds, something undetectable to a human._

Good hearing? Check.

_A wolf can smell their prey as far as a mile and a half away. Their smell is vital for not only itself, but for its pack. It can be used to smell their prey, or as communication within the pack. They can use their sense of smell to find out what might be an enemy or prey and if they are ill or dying._

Good sense of smell? Check.

Finished with the book I returned it to its shelf. What I read was enough information for me to know that my Animagus was a wolf.

Now that I knew my animagus was a wolf I frowned. _Why a wolf and not an eagle, like my patronus?_

"What are you doing up at this hour?"

I looked behind me and i was unsurprised to see Salazar. "I'm finding my animagus." I said it as if it was obvious and he should have already known.

"I see. And what are you?" he asked me.

"I'm a wolf."

"You don't sound very happy about it" he pointed out.

"No I am!" I quickly replied, "It's just that I don't know why it's different from my patronus is all."

"Well ones animagus won't necessarily be the same as their patronus. It is more likely that they will be the same yes, but they don't have to be. It could be that your eagle represents one part of your personality and the wolf represents the other."

I nodded at his words, "I suppose that would make sense"

"Besides, it's possible for your patronus to change" I nodded again.

"Should you not be asleep?"

Now I sighed as I trudged my way to the couch and dropped onto it, "I wish I could Sal. But ever since the Chamber has been opened that damn basilisk has been following me!"

"Why would my Anastasia be following you?"

"I'm pretty sure she heard me speaking parseltongue with Basil when I found Annabelle's body."

"I suppose that would be a good reason for her to want to be near you. She's probably lonely after all of these years, and the first person she's had contact with isn't the most friendly sort."

I looked over at Salazar, "are you trying to tell me to go and talk to her? You're crazy! Every time I hear her talking she goes on about how were kin and calls me her masters mate. Considering you aren't talking to her she's obviously talking about Riddle. And so you know what that means?! It means she thinks I'm a mate for Tom Riddle!"

"What's wrong with that?" Salazar's made his voice sound innocent.

"Umm hello? Voldemort? Future dark lord? Is using the basilisk to kill the muggleborns? Does any of this ring a bell?" The last question sounded a little exasperated.

"Yes I know all of that, I remember. But Daniella if you did become his 'mate' then you might change the future" he pointed out.

"No. He's too deep in this Voldemort stuff. If anything he would make me, like, his dark lady or something. Besides, the fact that I have no desire to date anyone kind of puts a damper on that plan. Add on the fact Riddle can't even love would make that plan a disaster."

"How would you know he can't love?"

"Well for one he was conceived under a love potion, and another is that he's never been shown any kind of love so he wouldn't know what it was if it hit him across the face."

Salazar gave a small sigh, "Alright I can see your point. But are you going to do nothing about the situation?"

"I don't know what _to do _Sal. The only time I ever see him is in potions, and maybe when we're passing through the halls, but he never talks to me. And I'm not too keen on talking to him myself!" I admitted, "He might start questioning me about something I either can't answer, or won't look him in the eye if I can which would make him think I'm lying."

"Why can you not look him in the eye?" Salazar asked me.

"Because I don't know occlumency. When I went to Gringotts it showed I was a natural Occlumens and I can feel when someone enters my mind, but I don't know how to stop them from getting in in the first place." I was really starting to become distressed.

"Calm down little snake." Salazar's voice helped slowly calm me down, "I can help you learn occlumency if you wish."

I shot up off the couch and scrambled to stand in front of him, "Really?!" I squealed.

"Yes. I can help you to make your shields, but because I can't use magic I won't be able to really test them."

I didn't care if he could test them, just that he would teach me. I drew him into a tight hug repeatedly saying "Thank you" before he was finally able to pry me off he smoothed down his robes, "If you wish for me to teach you, you will refrain from doing that again."

I was quick to agree.


	13. Chapter 13

Time passed relatively quickly ever since Salazar started teaching me occlumency. Every night after dinner I would meet with him in the Room of Requirement and he would instruct me on how to relax and clear my mind. Because I was a natural Occlumens it was easy for me to clear my mind and Salazar was able to instruct me on how to strengthen what shields I already had.

Even if someone was to break through my shields Salazar told me how to make my mindscape. What the intruder wound see was a library. Not the Hogwarts library, but the library I would always escape to back in my dimension.

Of course the intruder would think I put my memories in the books, but I didn't do that. In the library there are two floors, and on the top floor there were computers along the back wall in the corner. To find my memories they would need a password to even log on to the computer, and if they were able to do that they would have to look through all the different files I've set up. The most recent file was one I decided to label Animagus.

In any free time I have during the day I research all that I can on wolves and save the information in the file. I've been researching everything from their anatomy to the time of year they mate. Although the latter isn't really needed for the transformation.

The one thing that has been bothering me is that now, instead of ignoring me, Riddle has begun to stare at me when he thinks nobody is looking. He always has a weird glint in his eyes that I'm too creeped out to try and decipher. He's most likely planning different ways to try and get me alone so he can interrogate the shit out of me until every possible answer has been wrung out of me.

Now would probably be the best time for him to start that interrogation because the castle was empty. Winter break Bahrain a few days ago and all the kids were too eager to leave the castle. There had been another attack on some muggleborn student. The student didn't die thankfully, he was only petrified and was now sitting in the infirmary along with Annabelle Chambers.

The break was a relief for everybody, even a few of the teachers had left the castle to return to the safety of their own homes. The only people left in the castle was Dippet, Dumbledore, Slughorn, Hagrid, Riddle, and of course me. I spent most of my time in the RoR making progress on my occlumency shields and my animagus transformation. The rest of my time was spent with Hagrid.

It was rather fun hanging out with Hagrid. He would a,ways talk to me about all different kinds of animals–mostly dangerous. The most recent animal he's talked to me about were unicorns. I told him how the fifth years were going to start learning about them in our Care of Magical Creatures class, and he started informing me about everything he knows about unicorns. There was no doubt Care is Hagrids favorite class.

Now that Christmas was coming up I used the Floo from the RoR and travelled to Diagon Alley for some Christmas gift shopping. I traveled in my disguise of black converse, black ripped skinny jeans, red tshirt, and black hoodie. Basil was more than happy to be displayed in my shoulders, no longer having to hide beneath my clothes.

To keep the winter chill away I put some warming charms over my clothes, it helped to keep Basil warm as well.

I ignored the stares from the people I passed as I entered Madam Malkins, and when the bell above the door chimed Malkin looked up from behind the counter to greet me but her eyes widened in what seemed to be recognition.

"Welcome back dearie! I see you aren't wearing anything from the wardrobe I made you." She had a teasing glint in her eyes.

My eyebrows rose but she couldn't see them, "You remember me?" She could still hear the surprise in my voice though.

"Well of course! It's not everyday I get a customer such as yourself coming in near midnight and requesting a whole new wardrobe."

"What do you mean 'such as myself'?"

It was her turn to raise a brow at me, "Honey, your clothes are enough to remember you by. Add on the fact you have a four foot snake draped over your shoulders and you were cemented into my mind. I'm sure anyone else who saw you would remember you as well."

"I suppose that makes sense," I nodded. "But I'm not here for myself. I need a pair of socks."

"Socks?" she sounded a little incredulous.

"The fuzziness and most colorful you can find" I agreed.

"Alright" she sounded a little confused but didn't say anything. She went to the back if the store and returned a few moments later with a pair of blinding neon green socks with pink spots. "Anything else dearie?"

"Do you have any cloaks in a dark green color?"

"A winter cloak or an everyday cloak?"

"An everyday cloak if you have one." Browsing through the racks of clothes, Madam Malkin took down five cloaks all different shades of green. She held them out in front of me, "Do you like any of these or do you want a darker green?"

Each cloak seemed to light in my opinion except for one. It was a dark, almost black, green with silver occasionally stitched throughout the fabric. I pointed to the cloak, "That one."

I paid for the cloak and the socks before leaving the store and moving on to Flourish & Blotts. I went to the creature section and found a book filled with magical creatures and information about them.

Leaving F&B with the book in hand I made my way to the opening of Knockturn Alley. I was hesitant to go in there because of the dark aura I could feel hanging in the air. I squared my shoulders and made my way through the dark streets of Knockturn, keeping my occlumency shields up to mask any discomfort.

One old hag decided to try and grab my arm, but Basil was quick to rear up her head and bare her fangs with a venomous hiss. After that it seemed everyone else in the Alley kept their distance.

I final,y found the store I had been looking for, Borgin & Burkes. I opened the door into the dark and dusty shop and looked for anyone who could help me, but found no one.

I gravitated to the wall that held shelves full of dark titled books. I had no desire to get any of the books for myself but I was looking for a particular type of book, and I wouldn't have seen it if I wasn't looking hard enough.

Sitting on the shelf above me was a thin book with what looked like squiggles written on the spine. I took down the book and looked at the cover for a moment when the squiggles started to move together and form the title, "Dark Magick's".

I snorted at the creative title but brought it over to the counter. "That book is rather useless."

I looked up at the owner of the wheezing voice to find an old man with greying brown hair and a beard to match. He was looking back at me with dark eyes.

"I will be the judge of that. How much?"

"100 galleons."

I sneered at him, "Tell me _sir_," he scowled at my mocking tone, "if it's as useless as you say, then why are you asking for 100 galleons?" I didn't give him time to speak, "I'll give you 25 galleons for it. No more no less." To prove my point I dug into the pouch of money connected to my Morrickson trust vault and took out the 25 galleons. "Take it or leave it."

The man eyes the galleons and growled as he swiped them off the counter. I took the book and left without another word, and stalked out of the store.

I made my way out of Knockturn and into the more joyful streets of Diagon. "Hatty?"

A pop sounded beside me, "Yous be callin Hatty, Mistress Abby?"

"I need you to take these items," I handed her everything I had bought from the Alleys, "and if you can, bring them into my dorm room. Can you do that for me?" She nodded her head vigorously, "Good. Bring these there." She took the shopping bags and popped away.

I made my way to the Leaky Cauldron and went up to the bar tender. "Er, Tom?"

The man turned to look at me and grinned, "That's me! What can I do for ya?"

"Do you know how I could get to Hogsmeade?"

"Sure sure!" He came from behind the bar and led me over to the fireplace. "You can use the Floo. What store did you want to go to?"

"Honeydukes."

"Alright, just step into the fire and say Honeydukes. You should come right out from their own fireplace."

I took some of the Floo powder and looked at Tom, "Thanks." I stepped into the green flames and said Honeydukes as clear as I could. As the flames swallowed me I heard Tom say "You're welcome."

The fireplaces flew past me until I was finally spat out into Honeydukes. I brushed off my clothes and looked around the store and began weaving through the shelves of candy before I was able to find the Lemon Drops I was looking for. I also found a chocolate frog for myself before bringing the sweets to the counter.

I had just paid for the sweets when a piercing scream echoed through the village. The scream was soon followed by several more and the sound of breaking glass. Flashes of colors lit up the village.

Everyone in the store ducked down with frightened shouts while I rushed to the stores window and saw cloaked men terrorizing the people of the village.

I slipped out of the store and heard someone shouting from behind me to stay inside and how it was dangerous, but I ignored them.

I crouched low to the ground and scurried to the side of the building. I kept my back pressed against the wall and unsheathed my wand, intending to use my patronus to warn Dumbledore what was happening, but I hesitated. Slughorn might recognize my patronus and when they come to help they will see me in my disguise.

Another ear piercing scream rang through the village and all of my hesitation vanished. _Identity be damned I can deal with it later._

Coming out of my wand was my signature eagle, "Dumbledore, Hogsmeade is under attack," to prove my point another scream sounded through the air, "and your help would be very much appreciated." I rushed the rest of the message out and sent the eagle on its way.

I peeked past the wall of the candy store and examined the village. What I saw was pure chaos.

People were running around everywhere, some were battling the robed men without success, while others were trying to hide in nearby stores. The robed men were throwing spells around and hitting the panicking people. I saw one robe throw a red spell at a woman, and when it hit her she fell to the ground with a shriek. I watched her convulse on the ground and slowly tore my gaze from her agonized features to look at the face of her tormentor.

The man was wearing a sadistic grin that severely pissed me off. I pointed my wand at the man, "Reducto!"

The blue spell shot out of my wand and hit the woman's tormentor. He was blasted right through a window he had been standing next to and I hurriedly made my way over to the woman. "Come on. Get up!" I dragged the woman up by her arm, "Go!"

She looked to my face, trying to find the eyes she couldn't see. "Thank you" she whispered before stumbling away as fast as she could. I looked away from her and surveyed the chaos around me and jumped into the fray. There was no way I was going to stand in the sidelines and watch as people get hurt or die.

I've never dueled before but it seemed I didn't need to know. All of the robed men were distracted by the screaming people and I was able to blindside them with either a _Stupefy_ or a _Reducto_. They were the first spells that came to mind so those were the ones I used.

There was one moment when I saw one of the men throw the red spell–I assumed it was a _Crucio_–at a little girl. My eyes widened and I threw myself at the girl, blocking her from the spells path.

The pain was almost unbearable. It felt like a thousand hot knives stabbing me throughout my body. I clenched my teeth shut, not wanting to give the man the satisfaction of hearing me scream.

I put up what occlumency shields I could and was able to whip around and point my wand at the bastards face, "Reducto!"

A _Stupefy_ probably would have been better choice at such close range. The spell hit the man right in the face, but instead of blasting him away it practically blew off his face. I watched, wide eyed, as the now faceless man crumpled to the ground. Blood started pooling around his body and I was frozen with what I had just done, but a small sniff shook me out of my state.

I looked at the little girl in my arms and quickly shifted her in front of me so she wouldn't see the horrific sight. "Where's your mommy sweetie?" The little girl didn't answer me as she stood there and continued to sniffle.

_I don't have time for this._ I looked around and found a small side alley and shoved her in there. "Stay here. When all these bad men are gone we can find your mommy ok?" I sighed with relief when she nodded without a fuss.

I returned to the middle of the street and found the fight were slowly winding down and I would have been relieved if it wasn't for the powerful voice cutting through the air, "I saw what you did for that little girl, and I have to say," I turned to look at who had spoken and my brow furrowed, "I'm impressed."

The man had wavy blond hair and was looking at me with intrigued light blue eyes. He looked to be about the same age as Dumbledore and was wearing sleek black shoes with black slacks, a black turtle neck, and a deep magenta robe over his clothes. I wasn't sure who this man was, but I had a hunch.

"I just killed that man," the words had a bitter edge, "what is there to be impressed over?"

Blondie smirked at me, "That may be, but you willingly threw yourself in front of that spell to protect that little girl, even though you knew it was a Crucio. Besides," Blondie gestured to the man I killed, "he wasn't very useful."

I snarled at him but quietly hissed to Basil _"~Hide nearby, but out of sight. When he is distracted enough I want you to attack him, alright?~"_ She gave a low hiss of acknowledgement and slithered down my body. The man I believed to be Grindelwald watched her as she slowly made it to the ground and hid in the alley where I put the little girl.

"That's an interesting choice of pet." He looked at me from underneath his brows, "Where'd you get it?"

"Where I got _her_ and why is none of your business." I spat at him.

I held my wand as loosely as I could to keep my wrist relaxed and shifted my legs to stand a shoulder width apart. _Now would be an absolutely wonderful time to show up Dumbledore! _"I would greatly appreciate it if you and your minions would leave the village."

Grindelwald threw his head back and gave a deeply amused laugh. I looked around and noticed all of the fighting had stopped and everyone, both the shoppers and the minions, had chosen to watch what was unfolding between me and Grindelwald. The mans laughing stopped and I returned my attention to him.

He made the motion of wiping a tear from his eye and looked at me with amusement. "You are quite funny." he mused, "I'll tell you this, you have a lot of potential from what I've seen today and I think it would be beneficial to both of us if you were to join me."

My draw dropped open a little from astonishment. _Is he serious? He watched as I got crucioed by one of his men and now he's telling me I should join him? I think not._

"As wonderful as that sounds…no." As quick as I could I shot a _Stupefy_ at him but it wasn't quick enough. He easily dodged and after that it was a rainbow of spells. Most of which came from him.

With my limited knowledge on dueling I focused more on dodging the spells then firing any back. Knowing Grindelwald was a dark lord most of the spells he shot at me were dark and I didn't think a simple _Protego_ would be able to block them.

I was quickly growing tired and I knew Grindelwald could tell, if the fact that he started shooting spells faster than before was any indication. I knew I needed to get creative if I wanted any chance at getting out of this alive, forget about winning.

_Jesus why are these people just standing there? I need help! And where is Dumbledore! Some aurors would be nice too!_ I dodged another spell _Naturally they aren't here when they're needed the most._

I thought of every spell I possibly could, but they just weren't enough. I was really thinking about just giving up when Grindelwald threw another spell at me, this one hitting its mark.

My wand flew out of my hand and landed on the ground a few feet away, too far out of reach for me to get it without Grindelwald hitting me with another spell. I could hear the people around us gasp and I wanted to sneer _Don't tell me these people were expecting me to win. It was obvious I would lose from the start._

"I will admit, though I had better duels you have lasted longer than some." He then pointed his wand at me and the tip began glowing green. I knew exactly what spell it was but I looked Grindelwald in the eye. I would not close my eyes and look away as I was about to be killed. "It's a shame. You could have been wonderful had you joined me."

He opened his mouth to speak the killing words, but instead a shout of pain escaped him and he jumped back. I followed his glaring eyes to the ground and saw Basil reared back as if to strike again. I wanted to cry with relief but didn't get the chance because Grindelwald pointed his wand at Basil, the tip still glowing green.

Dread gripped me as I realized Grindelwald was about to kill Basil. The dread was replaced by anger and I could feel the warmth coursing through me. I instinctively brought up my hand towards Grindelwald. "Expelliarmus!"

His wand flew out of his hand and everyone watched as the wand soared through the air and into my outstretched hand. As soon as my hand closed around the wand I felt power and warmth flow from my hand and continue throughout my body. I thought nothing of it and pointed the wand at Grindelwald, "Incarcerous!" Ropes shot out of my wand and wrapped themselves around Grindelwalds defenseless form.

It was at that moment that pops sounded throughout the village. The aurors have finally arrived, along with Dumbledore. _Took them long enough._

They moved as if to start battling but realized there wasn't any. They saw everyone looking at the middle of the street and followed their gazes to see a hooded figure pointing their wand at the tied up form of Grindelwald. Nobody moved and Grindelwald took his chance.

"Retreat!" Grindelwalds form suddenly disappeared, followed by his followers. I wanted to face palm _Portkeys, naturally._

The disappearances caused everyone to gasp and the aurora scrambled to stop the followers, but it was in vain.

I stood in the middle of the street until I absentmindedly walked over to my wand and picked it up, as well as picking up Basil and setting her on my shoulders. I scratched her chin _"~Thank you~"_ I breathed to her. She flicked her tongue out and gave a small hiss of satisfaction.

"Hey!" I turned around and was blinded by a flash of light. When the spots left my vision I found a woman along with what must have been her camera man. "Tell me about your duel with Grindelwald. Were you frightened? How does it feel to know you were able to fend off Grindelwald when no one she could?"

I stumbled back from the woman, surprised by her sudden appearance and questions. "What?"

Her questioning was interrupted by a sudden voice, "Ms. Skeeter! Lovely to see you." We looked over to see Dumbledore happily making his way over. Skeeter gave a false smile, "Albus Dumbledores! Late as usual." I barely suppressed my snort of amusement _To true._

"I believe this mysterious stranger would like to go and take a nice break. I think she deserves it after what she has just been through." His eyes twinkled as they looked at us.

"This 'mysterious stranger' has just saved the whole village because of what she's 'just been through'. She's a savior to Hogsmeade! She took on Grindelwald when no one else would. And on top of that she one against him!"

I slipped away from the two arguing adults and went over to the little alley where the little girl was still sitting. When I crouched in front of her she looked up at me with wide eyes. "Hey there sweetie. Let's go find your mommy, yeah?" I held out my hand and waited for her to grab onto my palm.

I led her out of the alley and started walking her down the street, hoping either she would find her mom or her mother would find her. As we went I used the wand I had taken from Grindelwald and casted _Repairo_'s at the broken windows and anything else that needed to be repaired.

As I walked by people were giving me looks of amazement and awe. I was really uncomfortable with all of the attention and was grateful with the distraction of a relieved voice calling out, "Claire!"

"Momma!" The little girls hand left mine as she ran into the woman's arms. She hugged the girl, Claire, tightly to her chest before she looked up at me with pure gratitude, "Thank you." A man then walked up to them and wrapped them both into a hug I assumed him to be the girls father. He nodded his head at me and I nodded back.

"Let us be off, my dear." I looked over at Dumbledore and nodded my head.

I allowed him to lead me out of the village and up the path towards the castle. The walk was silent as we continued through the castle and towards the Great Hall.

He opened the doors and I saw everyone who stayed for winter break seated at the large round table that replaced the long house tables for the duration of the break. When my eyes landed on riddle I saw recognition light up in his eyes and I silently groaned. Instead I cleared my throat, "Dumbledore–"

"Just what were you thinking miss Abby?" There was no twinkle in his eyes as he looked at me with disapproval and what looked to be slight worry. "You were foolish to think of dueling Grindelwald."

Everyone in the room gasped and I decided it was pointless to keep my hood up so I allowed it to fall. I rubbed my hands over my face, "Professor what was I supposed to do!" I threw my arms up, "Was I supposed to allow him and his followers to terrorize the village while I did nothing but wait for help? Which, night I add, took way to long to get there!" I glared at Dumbledore before closing my eyes and rubbing my temples.

"Miss Abby," I opened my eyes and looked at Slughorn, "is what Albus said true? Did you duel Grindelwald?"

"Yes." I sighed and everyone at the table gaped at me, with the exception of Riddle. He was looking at me with blank eyes, clearly keeping his thoughts to himself. "I was in Hogsmeade doing some shopping when Grindelwalds followers showed up and started breaking things and attacking the people in the village. I helped out where I could but I never saw Grindelwald himself until at one point one of his men shot a Crucio at a little girl." Slughorn gave another small gasp which I ignored, "Grindelwald saw me take the Crucio for the little girl," I left out how I killed the man, "and he offered me to join him. My answer was to shoot a Stupefy at him and we dueled. I knew I was going to lose the duel but I wanted to prolong it for as long as I could so help could come. When he disarmed me he was going to kill me but Basil," I scratched her chin, "bit his leg and I was able to disarm him and tie him up. That was when you guys showed up."

The whole hall was silent after my telling of events. Dippet was first to speak and I was grateful for the break in silence, "I can imagine that you are tired from these events, but I just have one question."

I nodded, "Ask away."

"When did you get ah," he gestured to Basil.

"Oh! Um, well I've had her since I was twelve. People have never really shown a liking to her presence so I always kept her hidden. That's why you never knew about her." I scratched the back of my head, "Sorry."

Dippet waved his hand, "No need to apologize. It seems to me like her presence is helping you. You can keep her but it may be wise to keep her out of sight when the holidays are over."

I smiled, "Of course sir." I quickly made my way out of the Hall and up to the Gryffindor common room. I entered through the portrait hole and quickly made my way to my room where I saw my Christmas gifts sitting on my bed. I smiled and pushed them off the bed before unceremoniously dropping on the bed. Not even bothering to take off my shoes before I allowed myself to fall into a deep sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

_"~Parseltongue~"_

* * *

><p>Waking up that afternoon was one of the most pleasant moments I've had since I came into this dimension. I felt well rested and ready to face whatever the day would throw at me. I jumped out of the bed with a wide smile and looked down when I heard something fall to the floor.<p>

I picked up the piece of wood and gripped it in my hand. It felt natural to hold it, reminding me of the time I got my wand at Ollivanders. The feeling of warmth and as if I have found something I didn't know I was missing, only this wood had a more powerful…presence.

The wood itself was about 15 inches or so. Down its length were many ridge like bumps starting from the base near my hand and getting smaller as it reached the top. Covering every inch of the wood were many small indents that reminded me of clusters of elderberries.

The wood looked very familiar to me but I just couldn't place why. I tilted my head and furrowed my brows to try and remember–and my eyes widened in slight horror. The memories from the day before came rushing back to me and I collapsed back onto the bed, the Elder wand slipping from my numb fingers.

I sat on the bed and stared blankly at the wand for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes.

_"~Master? What is wrong?~"_

Basil's sudden voice brought me out of my shocked state and I looked over at her curled up form sitting next to me on the bed. _"~I'm not too sure Basil~"_

Basil looked at the wand as well and flicked her tongue out, tasting the air. _"~It smells of power~"_ she looked to me again _"~It likes you~"_

_"~Likes me?~"_ I choked out.

Basil hissed in agreement, ignoring my incredulous discomfort _"~I can feel it's power reaching out to yours~"_

_"~What do you mean you can feel it's power?~"_ this was becoming too much for me to handle.

She bobbed her head up and down in the snake equivalent of 'yes', before she rested her head against the bed to doze off. I was having none of that.

_"~Basil! Since when have you been able to feel magic?~"_

She gave a hissy sigh,_ "~After staying in the castle for as long as we have I have slowly became more sensitive to the presence of magic~"_

I nodded I suppose that would make sense. I looked down at the wand with trepidation and slowly reached down to take it. I each end between my hands and slowly turned it while I thought.

_How could I have missed it! I should have known it was the Elder wand the first time I saw it! Grindelwald was its master, but I disarmed him. Basil said it liked me, so does that mean I'm it's master? I hope not! What am I supposed to do with possibly the most powerful wand in existence? Isn't there that saying_ "With great power comes great responsibility"_? This is too stressful._

I let go of one end of the wand and ran it over my face. I looked at the wand between my fingers and suddenly perked up _I could just never use it. I have my own wand after all, I don't need to use this one._ I got off the bed and held the Elder wand in my hand, a little lost with what to do with it.

I had to keep it safe, I didn't want anyone finding it because A) Who knows what they might do with it, just look at Grindelwald, and B) anyone smart enough might recognize the wand as the one Grindelwald used, and figure out it was me that defeated him in a duel. Thankfully I had my hood up to hide my face, and hopefully no one would know it was me.

Going into my trunk I found some casual robes to change into before going into the bathroom to fix my hair.

The safest place to keep someone from finding the wand would be to keep it with me…maybe…_This is too much pressure._ I huffed and took my own wand out of the holster and replaced it with the Elder wand. I would probably have to get another holster just for the Elder wand but this would have to do for now.

I looked back at the mirror and brought my hair to the back of my head where I made a tight bun. I took my own wand and stuffed it into the bun. Examining my reflection I decided I looked pretty good.

Exiting the bathroom I was about to leave the dormitory when I saw everything I had bought yesterday thrown haphazardly onto the floor. I shrugged and decided I would wrap them later.

Making my way out of the common room I cast a quick _Tempus_ and found I had enough time to go to the Great Hall for lunch.

Opening the doors to the Great Hall I joined the others at the round table and pointedly ignored their stares. The usual glass of water appeared next to my plate and I smile a little while reaching for the surrounding lunch foods.

"I hope you had a nice rest miss Abby?" I looked up from my plate to see the whole table was still looking at me.

"I did" I answered Dumbledore.

"You missed this mornings post" he informed me. I nodded while raising a brow in silent question.

Dumbledore produced a rolled up newspaper from inside his colorful robes and handed it to me. I've never really read newspapers but I took the paper and cautiously unrolled it.

The picture largely printed on the front page made my heart skip a beat. It was a clear picture of me and Grindelwald mid-duel. Grindelwalds expression was fierce as he casted a spell at the dodging hooded figure that was me. I watched the moving photo as the spell raced towards me as I nimbly dodged it and returned my own spell. The only thing visible was my chin. The bold headline proclaiming me to be the **Village Savior.**

I turned to the other page and my breathing stopped altogether. It was another picture of me, only this time it was when I jumped in front of the little girl and pointed my wand at the mans face. The spell shot from my wand and found its intended mark. I watched for a second time as the mans face practically exploded.

The newspaper dropped from my hands and I pressed my hand to my mouth to prevent me from throwing up. The memories of that moment returned to me in full force. I felt a hand start gently patting my back and distantly heard an irate voice. "Dumbledore you should be ashamed of yourself! Making her remember something so horrible as–as that!" If my eyes weren't closed I would have seen him gesture to the picture of me killing the unknown man.

A hand started to pry mine away from my mouth before something cold was shoved into my mouth and liquid started started pouring into my mouth. I reflexively swallowed and almost instantly calmed down.

I took deep breaths and looked over to find Slughorn was the one who had been patting my back and berating Dumbledore. I noticed the empty vial in his hands and nodded to him, "Thank you professor"

"No problem at all my dear" he smiled gently at me.

I took my wand out of my hair and pointed it at the paper. Without looking I casted an _Incendio_ and allowed the horrible image to burn away.

Returning my wand to my hair I looked at the table to see everyone was still looking at me. My gaze landed on Dumbledore and I glared slightly, "Professor was there a reason for showing that to me?"

Dumbledore nodded in a solemn way and I wanted to strangle him, "I am truly sorry for bringing up such a horrible memory, but when you told us what happened last night you hadn't mentioned this particular incident. I wanted to talk with you about it, but I hadn't anticipated such a reaction."

"You hadn't–of course I was going to react that way!" I exploded. "I murdered that man! It doesn't matter that he was one of Grindelwalds men I still did it! It wasn't on purpose but that doesn't change the fact that–that–" my words got stuck in my throat and I just couldn't handle being in the room any longer.

I bolted out of the room with tears threatening to escape from my eyes. I didn't pay attention to where I was going, all I knew was that I wanted to get away from that room and run away from the horrible recurring memory of me killing the unknown man.

After awhile I began feeling exhausted, both physically and mentally. I stopped running and slid down the wall in the middle of some corridor. My head dropped between my knees and I allowed a single tear to escape before hastily wiping it away.

I sat there for who knows how long before I felt someone sit on the floor beside me. I kept my head ducked between my knees and waited for the other to speak.

"Are you alright?"

The familiar smooth voice made me sigh and I brought my head back to lean it against the wall behind us. I tilted my head to the Wilde and made eye contact with Riddle, "I will be."

We settled into silence until I looked back at him, "Why are you in the floor?"

He smirked and looked at me from the corner of his eye, "You're one to talk."

I nodded my head, "Point taken." I slowly rose from the floor with the help of the wall behind me.

Riddle stood up with fluid grace and helped me stand as well. When he let go I looked at him and gave him a small smile, "Thanks." He nodded in response.

I looked at the corridor around us and has no clue where we were. "You wouldn't happen to know where we are, do you?" I scratched the back of my head a little sheepishly.

All he did was smirk at me before pointedly looking at the lower part of the wall behind us. I followed his gaze and saw the signature snake, telling me I had run all the way down to the Slytherin Common room. _That would better explain Riddle's presence._

"Oh," I said in surprise, "sorry, I'll just go." I went to walk away but Riddle gripped my upper arm rather firmly.

"Several weeks ago you promised me you would answer my questions. Now would be a good time to ask them, no?"

I opened my mouth but swiftly closed it when I found no excuse to say no. I sighed in a resigned way, "Fine." I knocked on the wall and casually walked through when it opened for me.

Riddle followed me in and joined me on the sofa in front of the fire place. I looked up at the painting of Salazar but he wasn't there. Riddle must have noticed my confusion at the fact the portrait was empty. "He isn't always there. Most of the time he's disappeared and we never know where he goes off to."

"I see" I murmured.

"It was quite a surprise that he talked to you." Riddle said calmly.

"Oh," I quirked a brow, "and why is that?"

"Slytherin never talks to anybody. He usually just sits there in his portrait and watches over the common room" he leaned in closer to me, "Why would he talk to you, a muggleborn Gryffindor, instead of a pureblood Slytherin?"

I opened my mouth to retort but a voice from above us beat me to it, "I have my reasons for talking to miss Abby, and they are not for you to know"

We looked up to see Salazar had returned to his portrait and was looking at the pair of us with stern eyes. "Miss Abby what are you doing here in our common room?"

"Er, well at lunch today Dumbledore kinda upset me and I blindly ran out of the Great Hall and ended up here."

Salazar said nothing and waited for me to explain further. "I hadn't had the chance to tell you yet, but last night I was at Hogsmeade when Grindelwald and his men attacked. I was helping keep the men at bay but at one point one of them shot a Crucio at a little girl and I took it for her. When I turned around I pointed my wand at his face and casted a Reducto."

Salazar came to the conclusion himself, "And because you were so close the spell killed him instead of blasting him away." I nodded solemnly and looked down.

"Danielle there is no reason for you to be so upset about it." I looked up at Salazar incredulously.

"What do you mean 'no reason'? I killed him!"

"You did yes," he agreed which really didn't make me feel any better, "but your actions are justified. He was going to torture a little girl, not even I would have spared him for such an action. Danielle," his voice became a little softer, "that man has most likely done even worse things under Grindelwalds orders, and you may have spared lives because he is no longer with us."

Hearing Salazar tell me this did make me feel a little better, but the image of the mans face practically exploding would be forever burned into my memories.

"Now," Salazar's voice lost its gentle tone, "get out of my common room!" His voice was all bark and no bite.

"Yessir!" I saluted him and stood up from the couch. I turned to face Riddle and smiled, laying a hand on his shoulder, "Thank you, for not leaving me out in the corridor to wallow in my pity." A smile tugged at my lips and I didn't wait to see if he would respond before I made my way out of the common room.

* * *

><p>Midnight blue eyes glinted furiously up at the portrait of a smirking Slytherin. "Why did you interfere?" The dark voice almost slipped into parseltongue. "You know I have been trying to get her alone so I may speak with her."<p>

"Interrogate her" Slytherin corrected with that infuriating smirk still in place.

"Why. Did. You. Interfere?" It wasn't so much a question then it was a demand.

"It may be rather shocking for you to hear–I know I'm shocked I'm admitting this–but I am very fond of miss Abby and I will not have you hurting her in any way" Slytherins eyes glinted from the fire below him.

Blue eyes sneered, "What is so special about her that you would wish to protect her? She's nothing but a mudblood."

Slytherin sneered right back, "May I remind you that you yourself are a half-blood." Blue eyes snarled slightly before applying his mask and settling on a slight glare instead.

"There is a reason for you interest in her I'm sure of it." Blue eyes murmured. He stared into the fire until realization lit up in his eyes, "Of course" he breathed.

He looked up into the portraits eyes, "You know of her ability to speak parseltongue. You have known since before the school year even started." He stood from the green leather sofa and got closer to the portrait, "You've known and you didn't tell me. Why?" He demanded.

Slytherin looked calmly back, "There was no reason too."

"Of course there is a reason to!" The dark voice echoed throughout the room, "She is part of the Slytherin line–your line! She should be among us here in Slytherin where she can join me and help us against those filthy mudbloods"

"Join you?" Salazar smirked in pure amusement, making the boy before him even more agitated, "There is nothing you can do that would make her join you."

Midnight blue eyes glared at the portrait, "What else do you know?"

Salazar said nothing as he stood and calmly disappeared from the portrait, ignoring the boys irate demands to come back and answer him.

Tom Riddle glared at the now empty portrait above the fire before stalking up to his dorm room, silently swearing to himself he would find out everything he could about the mysterious Danielle Abby no matter how long it took.


	15. Chapter 15

When I woke up it was to the pleasant sight of festively wrapped gifts at the bottom of my bed.

I grinned, remembering it was Christmas, and crawled to the end of my bed. I crossed my legs and grabbed one from the small pile.

The gift was wrapped in a bright green paper with red stars decorating all over it. I ripped away the paper and opened the box to reveal a flashy red cloak with Gryffindor animatedly dancing about the fabric. I picked up the card sitting in the box and read it:

_To: Miss Danielle Abby_

_I hope you have a very merry Christmas, my dear._

_–Albus Dumbledore_

I set the card aside with a small smile, along with the cloak, absently deciding I would wear it for the day. Ever since the incident with the newspaper Dumbledore has apologized several times and I've pretty much forgiven him. I still think he's a dick though.

The next present I grabbed had silver wrapping paper with a green ribbon wrapped around it. I carefully untied the ribbon and ripped open the paper. Inside was a brand new journal and quill, both black. I read the card and saw it was from professor Slughorn, wishing me a Merry Christmas.

Another gift was given to me by Minerva. When I talked with her she would sometimes start getting really into the topic of Quidditch. When I told her I've never been on a broom, much less played the game, she looked horrified. It came as no surprise to me when I received a Quidditch rule book and how to play the game.

The last gift was from Hagrid, and seeing the messily wrapped package made me smile. He gave me some kind of, well it was a rock. His card he explained them as "rock cakes". I soon threw them out when I almost broke my teeth trying to bite into one, but it's the thought that counts.

I donned on some simple black slacks and my red tshirt. The red cloak from Dumbledore was thrown over my shoulders as I left the common room, throwing my hair into a messy bun as I went.

Breakfast was being held in the Great Hall, and I decided I would join everyone this morning before going off to continue practicing my animagus transformation. I was definitely making some progress and I was really excited.

It was a relatively silent meal, the only words exchanged were the usual "Merry Christmas" and "Thank you". I saw Dumbledore looking at me with his twinkling eyes as he commented on how he loved my cloak. My response was a smile of thanks and a knowing wink. Riddle was pretty quiet though. I saw him giving me side-long glances but he said nothing as he quietly ate his breakfast.

As I left the Great Hall I turned to make it up to the sixth floor when someone cleared their throat behind me. I turned around and saw Riddle standing behind me, looking everywhere but at me. "Thank you, for the gifts".

I barely heard him but I was surprised he said thank you. I never imagined Riddle to be much of the thanking type, and by his current attempts to avoid looking me in the eye I would say I was correct. "You're welcome" and with that I strode away.

When I turned a corner I made it to the nearest entrance to a secret passage and quickly entered. I made my way up to the sixth floor until I left the passages and scurried over to the blank wall. I set my hand on the wall again and at first nothing happened, until the wall rippled and my hand slowly sunk in. I walked foreword into the familiar multi-colored room.

"Look who it is!" said a booming voice, "It's been awhile Lady Danielle!"

I smiled up at Godric's portrait, "Indeed it has" I agreed. I settled down into one of the rooms couches and wished each founder a Merry Christmas, the greeting was happily reciprocated.

We talked about nonessential things for a couple hours before Godric brought up the topic of how I dueled with Grindelwald. I groaned, not really wanting to talk about it but knowing he would probably pester me until I talked.

I told them everything from what I was doing out in the first place all the way up to when I was brought back to the castle. I didn't leave any detail out, not even when I had killed that man. Even with Salazar's pep talk the other day I still felt understandably horrible about it, but the rest of the founders were quick to reassure me that the man most likely deserved it for what he was going to do to the little girl, and any past actions.

Checking the time I saw it was close to lunch time. I wouldn't go to the Hall until dinner and I decided I spent enough time with the founders and I left the room and began heading towards the RoR.

Once there I settled into the Room with ease. Animagus books lined the shelves of the room and I took the one I had been using down from a shelf. I sat cross legged in the middle of the floor and closed my eyes, focussing on my magic.

I focused on an image of my hands and pushed my magic into how I wanted them to change into paws. After much practice I felt my hands slowly but surely start to grow fur and my bones painfully shift into wolf paws. When I opened my eyes I smiled down at what were once my hands but we're now instead paws, fairly large paws too. They were covered with sleek black fur and I was pleased to see the fur had slightly continued up my arm and covered my wrists. I only started with my hands because I didn't want to try a full body transformation and accidentally get stuck in the animagus form, or end up only partially transformed.

I scrambled onto my knees and decided to try another transformation. Closing my eyes again I focused on an image of my back near my tailbone and focused my magic on trying to grow a tail. My tailbone started feeling really hot, on the verge of burning, when I felt as if the bones of my spine were being stretched. The pain became to unbearable and I stopped the flow of my magic.

I panted for a couple seconds before shedding my cloak and lifting up my shirt to get a better look at my lower back. What I saw made my eyebrows rise slightly. I reached back and touched the bone that was once my tailbone but was now elongated about five inches covered in black fur that continued up my spine. I took a deep breath and focused on making both my paws and the short tail go away. The pain returned but it wasn't as horrible as when the tail first appeared. When I looked back I saw both the tail and the fur had disappeared, along with the return of my hands.

Stretching until I heard the satisfying sound of my bones popping, I rid myself of any lingering pain and returned to my cross legged position. I decided I would focus on the tail at another time and for now just stick with my arms.

This continued on for several hours until Hatty popped in, saying it was almost time for dinner before popping out. I looked down at my arms and found that by now the fur had reached up to my elbows and my forearms now looked more like a dogs then a humans. Technically a wolf not a dog, but whatever.

I slowly changed my arms back to normal before leaving the RoR and making my way down to the Great Hall. Dinner was just as quiet as breakfast, only this time we had quite the feast of mashed potatoes, a roast, and my favorite part was the chocolate cake.

That night as I laid in bed I couldn't help but feel that this was probably the best Christmas I've ever had.

* * *

><p>It was December 31st and I was utterly lost.<p>

I was standing in the kitchens with the houselves bustling about around me. I had asked them for some cake ingredients and they happily gave me some. My only problem was, was I didn't know how to bake. At all.

"Hatty?" said houself was quick to join my side.

"Yes, mistress Abby?"

"Do you know how to bake a cake? At least the steps?"

She nodded her head, flapping her bat-like ears about. "Yes, Hatty be's knowing how to bake."

"Do you think you could help me?"

She looked up at me with wide eyes and gave a small squeal of excitement. That should have been my warning to run away.

Hatty was like a drill sergeant when it came to baking. She was telling me to do this that and the other, and I did my best to keep up but it was hard! At one point she even wicked me with a wooden spoon because I accidentally got an egg shell in the mix.

Thankfully when the cake was done all I had left to do was put some frosting on it, and it was a much simpler task to just put some chocolate frosting all over the cake then the process of baking it.

I stood back to admire my work, but I felt like something was missing. I rubbed my chin and snapped my fingers when I knew what it was. I asked Hatty for some kind of plastic bag and some green frosting.

She happily gave me what I asked for, and I filled the bag with the frosting before twisting it closed and cutting a small hole in a corner of the bag. I angled the bag onto the top of the cake and slowly but surely wrote out _Happy Birthday Tom_. It was rather messy but I didn't care.

I picked up the round chocolate cake and left the kitchens, along with a gift I hadn't given him in Christmas. For Christmas I had given him the cloak, and for his birthday today I was going to give him the parselbook I found in Borgin & Burkes.

Quickly making my way through the dungeons I finally made it to the common room entrance and happily slipped through when the wall opened up without hesitation.

I surveyed the empty common room and frowned when I realized Riddle wasn't there. I huffed a little and set the gift and the cake onto the table in front of the fire. Disappointed I wasn't going to see Riddle's reaction to my surprise I put a charm over the cake to keep it warm and left the common room. The wall closing behind me with a dull thunk.

* * *

><p>Up in his dormitory one Tom Marvolo Riddle was laying in his bed, sneering up at the canopy of his bed. He remembered very well what today was and he wasn't thrilled about it.<p>

Most kids would be excited or happy over waking up on their birthday but not Tom. To him this was just another insignificant day of the year. Why should it be when it was never celebrated when he was a child? If anything he loathed this day. This was when his mother had died giving birth to him and left him to grow up in that pathetic orphanage.

His musings were cut short by the dull thunk of the common room entrance closing. He sat up from his bed and grabbed his wand from his side dresser.

He got up from his bed and cautiously made his way to the common room. Angry someone had ruined his morning he was ready to cure the insufferable intruder, no matter who it was.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs he examined every inch of the common room but found nothing there. He lowered his wand a fraction and was about to go back up to his room when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes.

Turning he pointed his wand but instead found nothing dangerous at all, but what looked to be…he blinked, a cake?

Walking forward he looked around once more before setting his wand down in the table next to the cake and noticed the gift on the side. He carefully picked it up and casted some detection spells over the package to make sure it wasn't cursed in anyway, before he cautiously opened the paper and found it to be a book.

He would have thought the book to be insignificant but he realized that it wasn't written in English, but in parseltongue. He grinned at the thought of owning such a rare book that only he could read, but then he saw a small card stuck under the cover. He carefully pulled it from the book and flipped it over to read the inscription _Happy Birthday Riddle. I would have kept the book for myself, but I'm not that into dark magic. I still have to read that dark magic history book I got back during the summer. –D. Abby._

He set the card down with a smirk _It seems I'm no longer the only one who can read such books anymore_ he thought.

He set the book down and looked at the cake sitting in front of him. Casting a few detection charms to make sure it was safe to eat, unsurprised to find out the cake was alright.

Using his wand he conjured a plate and a fork. He cut a piece of cake and set it onto the plate before taking a small bite.

He took another bite of the moist cake and sank back into the couch _Maybe today won't be too bad._


	16. Chapter 16

Sitting at the Gryffindor table I absentmindedly pushed my food around my plate as I tried to keep my growing migraine at bay. The continuous chatter of students in the Great Hall wasn't helping.

"Are you alright?" I looked up into the concerned eyes of Minerva. I tried to smile reassuringly, but it felt more like a grimace.

When Minerva found out I was staying in the castle where a dangerous monster was loose and petrifying students she sent me a letter expressing her concern, and to berate me for being so stupid as to not mention it. She would have been perfectly happy to invite me over to spend the break with her family.

"I'll be fine Minerva" I sighed.

We both knew it was a lie. She did not know what was bothering me and I planned on keeping it that way.

I've been hearing the basilisk slithering through the walls more often. It's whispering hisses echoing into the walls, demanding for its "prey". The sound apparently something only I could hear. No doubt Riddle would be able to hear it too, if the snake was ever near him. He was always with purebloods and the snake was supposed to go after muggleborns, it's possible he never hears it.

Remembering the unnerving sound of the basilisk's hissed demands made a shudder go down my spine.

Minerva unfortunately noticed the shudder and sighed, in a rather disappointed way. "Alright that's quite enough." My eyebrows rose and I waited for her to continue, "Something is obviously bothering you, but what ever it is you don't wish to tell me about it." I felt bad that I wasn't telling her, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do with this kind of information. Who is there to tell anyway? If anyone knew that I knew what the monster was, they would probably think it was me that set the monster loose. "If you can't tell me about it, then we can at least take your mind off of it. Come on."

I followed her from the table and she led me out of the Great Hall. We continued up to the seventh floor and we entered the Gryffindor common room. Going up to the dormitories she opened my rooms door and pointed inside, "Get your broom and meet me down in the common room." She turned around and strode down the hallway back towards the common room.

Entering my room I quickly opened my trunk and shed my cloak, not wanting to wear something so loose for my first time on a broom.

Dropping the cloak it went right through the bottom of the trunk and into my wardrobe. I then tapped the side of the trunk, _"~Jester~"_. The bottom of the trunk clicked open and underneath in the secret compartment was the broom I had bought all those months ago. I haven't even looked at it ever since, and seeing it now I knew Minerva was about to teach me how to fly. It made me nervous, but I pushed the nervousness aside and pulled out the broom.

I closed my trunk and left the room. Making my way down to the common room I saw Minerva was already there waiting for me.

When she saw me she turned around and started walking out of the portrait whole. I quickly caught up with her and kept pace with her quick strides. "Where's your broom?"

She shrugged, "At the Quidditch pitch." After that we descended into silence as we quickly made our way through the castle halls.

With our quick pace we managed to make it down to the pitch in about ten minutes, where Minerva went to grab her own broom in the team locker rooms, and then instructed me to set my broom onto the ground. I did as she said and waited for her to continue.

"Place your hand over the broom, and say 'up' ".

I looked at her like she was crazy, "Why would you make me put it down if I'm just going to be picking it back up?"

She just shrugged, "This is how we were instructed as first years, so this will be how I'll instruct you."

Not really able to argue I did as she asked and stretched my hand out above the broom. I cleared my throat and stated, with all the confidence I had, "Up".

The broom shot up from the ground and smacked into the palm of my hand. The sudden motion and weight made me wobble a little bit, but otherwise I was ok.

A large grin overtook my features at the fact it only took me one try to get the broom to come of the ground. I turned to Minerva, "What now?"

She swung her leg over her own broom as she said to me, "Mount your broom". I followed her example and swiftly straddled my broom. I looked up at her for more instructions.

"Now, all you need to do is kick off the ground–gently!" She had rushed to finish but I had already kicked off.

Naturally I had been worried it wasn't going to work and I would have look stupid just kind of jumping in place, so I had jumped as high and as hard as I could which resulted in me shooting off into the air.

The wind stung my eyes and I forced them closed, the only thing I could hear was the whooshing sound of air as I shot through the sky. I clung to my broom because I knew if I let go I would end up plummeting to my death.

I tilted my head down and slowly opened my eyes to see the ground was very, very far away. It made me cling even tighter to the broom.

Trying not to panic I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I wasn't scared at heights really, but the fact I was so high in the air with only a broom keeping me safe freaked me out a little.

Releasing the breath I had been holding I took hold of my magic and wrapped it around my broom. "Stop!"

I was almost sent soaring off of my broom when it came to a sudden halt. My eyes flew open and I looked around me. I couldn't see Minerva anywhere and it freaked me out a little bit, but I forced myself to be calm.

Gripping the handle of the broom and I ever so slowly pushed my weight forward and allowed the broom to tilt forward. When I was finally horizontal in the air I allowed myself to sit up straight, no longer feeling the need to cling to the broom.

"Ok. We're just going to do this nice and slow." As I was saying this I was patting the broom gently as if it were a pet. I could have sworn I felt the broom give its own version of a purr, but I ignored it.

Adjusting my grip on the broom, I pushed forward and automatically shot towards the ground, my screams stolen by the wind.

_This is ridiculous_ I thought. It would seem brooms were rather sensitive when they're being directed.

The ground was quickly getting closer and closer and I squinted my eyes against the wind as I pressed my self against the broom once more. Only this time I wasn't clinging to the broom like my life depended on it.

As I got closer to the ground I nervously adjusted my grip and waited until I was just close enough to the ground until I yanked upwards on the broom handle. The broom slowed to a stop, and that was when I felt the ground beneath my feet. I promptly jumped off the broom and my legs gave way, causing me to collapse to the ground. Not caring that I was laying on the ground I stared up at the sky and took deep breaths. If I could I would be hugging the ground.

"Danielle!" I was suddenly dragged up from the ground and into the arms of Minerva, who promptly squeezed all the air out of me.

"Hello Minerva" I wheezed.

She quickly set me down and looked me over, most likely trying to see if I had any injuries. Not that she would find any, all the scars from that experience were now permanently etched into my mind.

"Are you alright?" The air had finally returned to my lungs and I looked up to see Minerva with her hands on her hips, "You should have been more careful. You could have been seriously injured!"

I just waved her off, "I'm alright, don't worry about it."

Minerva pursed her lips, but gave a tight nod. "We'll try this again alright. But this time, we're going to take it slow."

No longer doubting if the broom would be able to fly, I did as Minerva instructed and gently pushed off of the ground and glided around the pitch. After being so high in the air it didn't freak me out as much now that I stayed around the height of the Quidditch hoops, although they were pretty high up as well.

It wasn't long before I got the hang of flying and began making some lazy laps around the field. At one point Minerva descended to the ground and went to grab the balls used for a quidditch game.

Feeling a little awkward flying around alone, I looked around me to see if anyone was around before tightening my grip and urging my broom to go faster. The broom easily picked up speed, and eventually I was zooming around the pitch, this time instead of being afraid I had a large grin on my face.

After doing a couple laps around the pitch I began flying towards the ground and quickly pulling up to see how quickly I was able to pull out of the dive. I did this a couple times before flying high above the goal hoops–though not as high as before–and dove towards the ground until I was completely vertical.

I watched the ground and waited until I was about four feet away from becoming a bloody pancake, before sharply pulling on my broom and flying parallel to the ground. I was still about two feet from touching the ground and I once again flew into the air and dove to the ground, only this time I waited until I was three feet from the ground before pulling up on my broom.

My feet brushed against the ground and I slowed my broom to a stop before jumping off, stumbling only slightly. I grinned in triumph and looked up to see Minerva looking at me with her mouth slightly gaping open. She seemed to shake herself out of it and rushed up to me, her eyes were filled with excitement. "Merlin you're amazing! You have to be on the team!"

I quickly shook my head, "Definitely not! I don't know how to play the game. And besides! The tryouts have finished months ago, I couldn't be on the team if I wanted to."

She seemed to deflate at my words but quickly recovered, "I suppose you're right. But you're definitely trying out next year" she threatened.

I just rolled my eyes, "Yea yea."

As we were walking out of the pitch and towards the castle my mind went over the words Minerva said to me,_ "next year"_. Would I still be here next year? And if so, how long was I going to be here? Forever? The thought of staying in the magical world didn't seem like that bad of an option. It's not like I had much to go back to in my dimension. At least here I have friends. Where I will be living during the summer, however, has yet to be seen.


	17. Chapter 17

_"~Parseltongue~"_

* * *

><p>It was the end of the day and I decided I would go to the Room of Requirement and continue my animagus transformation instead of going down to dinner.<p>

I was almost finished with the transformation. Throughout the year I have finally been able to turn all of my limbs–including my hands and feet–into that of a wolfs. While my legs were transformed it was too hard to stand up, so I just decided to sit on the floor. I had to be careful when I sat down because I was now able to grow a tail, and once I accidentally sat on it. The pained yelp that came out of me was decidedly dog like, and I didn't want to feel that pain again.

Looking in the mirror the room provided for me I closely examined the way my ears changed shape to look like a wolfs. I grinned whenever I would move my ears, whether to lay them flat on my head or just twitching them. It was hard changing my ears because I had to change them to match that of a wolfs hearing as well, the inside mechanisms of a human ear and a wolfs ear were different and if I changed them without knowing that difference I could mess up my hearing.

The same went for my eyes, along with my sight. The only difference now between my eyes and a wolfs eye is that mine were their normal purple color, when a wolfs is typically a golden-yellow.

I was finished with all of the small things when it came to the transformation, but now I had to focus on the rest of my body. My eyes were closed and I imagined myself in my current form (My arms and legs switched out for a wolfs front and hind legs, my hands and feet turned into paws, instead of just a tailbone I had an actual tail, my ears no longer looked human but like a wolfs, and my vision was also a wolfs).

With the image of myself I began to think of the rest of my body transforming. My head changed shape, causing my ears to be placed more towards the top of my head. My nose elongating to create a snout, and my hair shortening and spreading until my head was covered in fur.

My torso would change so my arms and legs would be beneath my body instead of stretching to the sides. My spine, ribs, and organs would change their positions and my organs would also change sizes.

I imagined all of these changes happening, down to the very detail. After I was sure the changes were exactly as they needed to be I looked deep into myself until I felt the warmth that signaled my magic. I took hold of my magic and pushed it to follow the changes that would be necessary to change my body and become a wolf.

As soon as I directed my magic pain shot through my head and torso. My skull shifting and my teeth growing longer. I could feel my insides squirming and moving against each other. The pain of the transformation was everywhere and it felt like days before it finally receded.

When I was finally able to think clearly I realized that I was panting, but it sounded rather…odd. I tried standing up from the floor only to collapse once again. Huffing I looked back and instead of seeing any clothes or skin I found nothing but fur.

Excited that this might have actually worked I carefully stood up until I was on all fours. I stayed still until I was used to using four legs instead of two before I took a slow step forward with my front leg. It was an unsteady walk but eventually I reached the mirror and plopped down with a thankful huff.

When I saw my reflection the first thing I noticed was that I was big, maybe twice the size of a normal wolf. My shaggy fur was a pure black color, the only color anywhere on my body were my eyes. I opened my mouth and examined each of my teeth. Each one seemed to have lengthened and tapered of to a point, especially my canines.

I saw something moving behind me and I turned my head to see my tail was quickly wagging back and forth. I cocked my head to the side and forced my tail to stop. When I turned back to the mirror I could feel it continue its wagging. I quickly turned around and snarled at my tail, causing it to abruptly stop. I gave a victorious snort and turned around, giving the mirror a wolffish impression of a grin.

My tail suddenly started wagging again and I waited before quickly lunging back and trying to bite it…only for it to move out of reach and cause me to face plant into the floor. I stood up again and shook it off _Well at least now I can better understand why dogs chase their tails._

I started walking around the room so I could get more used to walking with four legs. After awhile it wasn't that hard and I was soon trotting around the room. My surroundings suddenly changed and I was soon surrounded by trees. The floor was replaced with grass and the ceiling became a sky.

A happy whine escaped me and I was soon trotting through the trees. I continued pushing myself until eventually I was running as fast as I could while weaving through the forest the Room provided for me.

I soon came upon a clearing and I happily pranced around. I had finally done it. I became an animagus. An illegal one, maybe, but that didn't matter. I wasn't going to register as one either. It was very likely I would get in trouble for doing this kind of magic without any supervision, and I didn't see the importance of telling anybody anyway.

I stood in the clearing, panting from all the running I had previously done. I sat on my haunches and brought up an image of me turning back into my regular body. I focused on the thought of my body changing back and I felt my body slowly, and painfully, start shifting back. Gritting my teeth through the pain I forced myself to keep the image in my mind, not wanting to end up only halfway transforming because I lost focus.

My body slowly stopped changing and when I looked around I saw the Room had changed from the forest and back to the warm atmosphere of the study. I spotted the mirror and I scrambled towards it to see not a single piece of fur remained.

I squealed and quickly left the Room. Prancing around the corridors I paid no attention to where I was going. It was inevitable for me to end up tripping over something and falling onto my back.

Sitting up with a grunt I looked to see what I tripped over and froze, because laying out on the ground in front of me was a body. I stared at the body in horror and quickly scrambled over and looked down at his face.

His eyes were wide open in terror and his mouth was partially open, mostly likely about to scream. I pressed my fingers underneath the boys jaw and waited until I felt his light, fluttering pulse. Knowing he was alive made me sigh in relief.

My relief was short-lived when I heard something hurrying down the corridor. I whipped my head up and saw that it was Minerva who was hurrying towards us.

She abruptly stopped in front of me and the petrified boy. Minerva looked at the boy in surprise, which quickly changed into horror. She turned her horror filled eyes onto me and I held my hands up, "I didn't do it I swear! I found him like this!"

Minerva collapsed onto her knees on the other side of the boy, never breaking eye contact with me. "Is he–?"

I quickly shook my head, "He's not dead, just petrified."

Her shoulders sagged in relief and she finally looked at the boy. "This is getting out of hand." I nodded in agreement, even though she couldn't see it. "I've heard the headmaster is thinking about closing the school." She looked at me with frightened eyes, "Do you think he will?"

I looked back at her with equally frightened eyes, "I hope not."

I knew the school wasn't going to close. When Riddle is told by Dippet that the school is going to close, he blames everything on Hagrid. Poor innocent Hagrid. I knew–have known ever since before the first attack–the Riddle was responsible for everything, and I could have told any one of the teachers about it but _I didn't._

The guilt was almost overwhelming but there wasn't much I could do about it. Nobody would believe that Mr. Perfect Student was behind it all, except maybe Dumbledore. He's always been pretty suspicious of Riddle, probably because Dumbledore knows about his parseltongue ability. Plus if I was to accuse him of doing these things then people would ask me why I would accuse him of all people, then how I knew. I don't really have any answers for this questions so Ive forced myself to keep quiet about it.

My thoughts were interrupted by a low hissing from the walls. I quickly scanned my eyes along the corridor but naturally I found nothing. Minerva was still looking at the petrified boy, acting as if she heard nothing, probably because she didn't.

I cleared my throat to get her attention, "Why are you up here? I thought you would be at dinner."

"I was," she sighed, "but when I saw you weren't at dinner I was worried. I thought the monster had gotten you too." She chuckled humorlessly, "Turns out it wasn't you who was attacked huh?" She looked back down at the boy, but I kept my eyes on our surroundings.

"Why are you up here anyway?" I looked over at her for a moment as I thought of something to tell her.

Before I could tell her anything another hiss echoing through the hallway. I knew Minerva had heard it by the widening of her eyes and the slight fear shining in their depths. "What was that?" she whispered.

I didn't answer her as I slowly stood up, scanning the corridor for any movement. Minerva stood as well, and made her way next to me. "Danielle what was that?" Her eyes quickly flitting around until they finally locked with mine.

I took a deep breath before I spoke, "It's the monster." As soon as the word left my mouth the sound of something very large sliding against stone entered our ears. I followed Minerva's eyes to see a large form come around the corner behind her. Before she could see anything more–heaven forbid she looked it in the eyes–I placed a hand on each side of her face and turned it so she would look at me.

"Don't look at it" I told her frantically.

"What? Why?" she sounded equally as frantic.

I gave her a flat look, "Really? That thing," I pointed to the end of the hall where the basilisk was slowly coming closer. Seeing that I spoke much more quickly, "is the reason everybody is getting petrified!" I latched onto her hand and gave her a hard look, "Do not look back, else you might die."

Turning around I quickly started running down the hall, dragging Minerva behind me and ignoring the unhappy hiss from the basilisk.

"What do you mean die?!" She yelled the question at me.

"Should you look it in the eye, you will die instantly" I gasped out.

"But–" I quickly cut her off.

"Now is not the time for talking! Now is the time to run for our lives!" With that said we continued our sprint through the corridors. Considering Minerva hasn't screamed or dropped dead I assume she hasn't looked behind her.

_"~Kin…Blood…Mistress…~"_ Hearing the hissing noises made Minerva tighten her grip on my hand. _"~Speak to me~"_

Hearing the basilisk say a whole sentence surprised me, making me stumble a little before I continued running. Faster than before if that was possible.

We finally made it down to the first floor and we could hear the muffled voices from the Great Hall, signaling that it was still dinner. We didn't stop running as we dashed towars the door.

Halfway down the corridor I heard a yelp before something thudded to the floor. I turned around and found Minerva sprawled out on the floor. Bending down I grabbed her arm and dragged her off of the floor. "Sorry I tripped!"

I shook my head, "That's fine–" my sentence was cut off by another hiss, and I looked up to see the basilisk barreling down the hall. It wasn't often that I felt scared, but at this very moment I felt no shame in screaming at the top of my lungs and bolting down the hall. Minerva's arm still firmly in my grasp.

Ignoring all of Minerva's frantic questions I quickly flung the both of us through the Great Hall doors, effectively killing everybody's conversation to watch us pant in exhaustion.

I quickly stumbled my way to the doors and slammed them closed, making everybody jump at the sudden noise. Not five seconds later something very large slammed against the doors causing them to push inward, but I stubbornly kept them closed. The whole hall gasped and shrunk away.

Everyone held their breath as they waited for it to happen again, but nothing happened. I slid my hands off the door and backed away until I ran into one of the house tables. Looking down at the table my eyes landed on a goblet and I greedily grabbed it and drank its content, uncaring that it was pumpkin juice.

Once it was empty I gave a grateful sigh and slammed the goblet on the table. Realizing the only sounds in the Hall was the tired panting of both me and Minerva, I looked up to see everyone's eyes glued to our tired forms.

I straightened as best I could and brushed off my robes while clearing my throat, "I'm sorry for our abrupt entrance. We seemed to have run into a bit of, um, trouble."

"Trouble?!" Everyone's attention turned from me and onto Minerva who was looking at me incredulously, "You call that 'trouble'?!"

"Well it was!" My tone was a touch exasperated _How else am I supposed to describe what just happened?_

The sound of someone clearing their throat cut off our small argument and we looked at the head table to see both Dippet and Dumbledore standing from their seats. "What seems to be the problem?" Dumbledore calmly asked.

Minerva and I looked at each other and silently agreed that I would speak, for now. "Well would you like the whole story, or just the main detail?"

"I assume the main detail is the reason you both burst in here?" We nodded and Dippet continued, "Then the main detail should suffice."

I cleared my throat uncomfortably and mustered up as much courage as possible, "We were running for our lives," I paused and let the suspense grow before Minerva finally nudged me, "from the monster."

The silence was deafening before it was broken by a student shouting out "What?!" That seemed to have broken everyone out of their shock and everybody tried to talk at once. Most turning to worry with their friends while those closest to me and Minerva tried asking us all sorts of questions, trying to get all the scary details.

"SILENCE!" The Great Hall went instantly silent and everyone turned startled eyes onto Dippet. He took his wand away from his neck and his voice went quiet once again, "Miss Abby, Miss Mcgonagall, would you like to take this up to my office?"

I shuffled, still uncomfortable being center of attention, "Erm, maybe instead we could pretend this never happened and get back to dinner?" I suggested.

But both Dippet and Dumbledore shook their heads, although Dumbledore had a smile as if he was amused at my discomfort. _Bastard_.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible Miss Abby." Dippet continued, "You two are the only ones who have seen the monster, and we need you to give us any possible information you can."

It was at this moment that Minerva step forward to speak, "Actually Headmaster, I didn't see the monster."

"No?" Dippet raised his brows.

"No sir." Minerva gestured to me, "Danielle was the one who saw it. She made sure I didn't look back, incase I became petrified as well."

I averted my eyes and looked everywhere around the room until my eyes locked with midnight blue eyes sitting at the Slytherin table. Immediately I felt something gently push against my mental shields. If he really wanted to get in he could break through them, with a bit of effort. I decided to let him through so I could tell him one thing. _I know this is your fault, and when they finish interrogating me I'm going to hit you_. I shoved him out of my mind and ignored the flicker of amusement in his eyes before looking at Dippet. "We can go to your office Headmaster."

Nodding his head Dippet dismissed all of the students off to bed (besides me and Minerva) and had us follow him up to the headmasters office.

When we made it to his office Minerva and I sat in front of his desk while the teachers situated themselves around us. It was rather intimidating.

"Now," Dippet folded his hands on top of his desk, "could one of you please tell us what happened, from beginning to end."

I shrunk deeper into the chair I was seated in, "Well," I cleared my throat when everyone looked over at me, "I wasn't feeling too hungry so I decided to skip dinner and just wandered around the seventh floor."

Dumbledore interrupted me, "My dear you shouldn't have been wandering around alone."

I smiled, "I know Dumbledore." I continued my story, "I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going and I suddenly tripped over something. When I looked over I saw a boy lying motionless on the floor." I took a deep breath, "He was petrified."

The declaration made some of the teachers gasp in sadness and shock. I nodded, "That was when Minerva found me." Everyone looked to Minerva for confirmation, and when she gave it they returned their gazes to me. "We were, um, wondering what to do with the petrified boy when we heard something. We got up from the ground and looked around the corridor until we finally heard it coming from the end of the corridor. When we saw something come from around the corner I turned Minerva's head so she would be facing me instead of the, ah, monster" I shifted in my seat again, still uncomfortable with the attention. "I told her that I didn't want her to accidentally make eye contact otherwise she would die."

"Miss Abby, surely you mean she would be petrified?"

I looked into professor Slughorns eyes and shook my head, "No. If one was too look directly into its eyes, they would be killed instantly."

"Then what's been petrifying the students?" All the teachers seemed even more worried than before and I wanted to bang my head against a wall.

Taking a calming breath I told them, "The monster is a basilisk."

Just like in the Great Hall everybody in the room grew silent. The air was tense and Dippet brought up his hand and rubbed at his eyes before leaning back in his chair. "This is much more dangerous than I thought." He took a deep breath and released it before telling me to continue.

"After I warned Minerva I grabbed onto her hand and we raced through the halls and down staircases until we made it down to the first floor. We heard all the noise in the Hall and we raced towards it. When we made it to the doors we burst through and well, you know the rest" I finished awkwardly.

The room descended into another silence and everyone turned to Dippet when he cleared his throat. I was glad the attention was no longer on me. "For now we shall keep this information quiet. Don't let any of the other students know that the monster is a basilisk. It may do more harm than good." He looked at each person in the room and waited for their nod of consent before continuing. "As for you two," he looked at me and Minerva, "I shall have one of the professors take you down to your common room before they join the rest of us in the teachers lounge."

Everyone agreed and Dumbledore was the one to volunteer to bring us up to the common room. It was a quiet and cautious journey, but eventually we made it to the portrait hole. "Thank you professor."

Dumbledore smiled gently but the twinkle was missing from his eyes, "Not a problem dear." He turned around and just as cautiously as before.

We spoke the password for the portrait and entered the common room. As soon as someone saw us the pointed us out to their friends until finally everyone in the room was looking at us. We ignored the stares and made our way up to the dormitory. As soon as we were out of the room we heard the talking resume in the common room and we both sighed.

When we stopped in front of my dormitory door I reached up and squeezed her shoulder, "Goodnight Minerva." She gave me a tired smile and continued down to her room. Before I entered the room I heard her give me a tired 'goodnight'.

I tiredly changed into a tank top and a baggy pair of sweatpants. When I had gone down to Diagon Alley for a wand holster to hold the Elder wand I went to Madam Malkins and had several different pairs of these designed, as either pajamas or if I'm feeling lazy.

My attempts to fall asleep were useless. I could do nothing but toss and turn, the images of the basilisk haunting my thoughts. When the dorm door opened I forced myself to lay still, not wanting to bother August Rookwood. No doubt she would get tired of my constant moving and tell me to shut up.

I waited until I could hear her heavy breathing, signaling she was asleep. Sitting up in my bed I put up a silencing charm and quietly called for Hatty.

She popped in as bouncy as ever and it made me wonder if they ever slept. "Hatty, I need you to go to the Slytherin common room as quietly and discreetly as possible, and tell me if anyone is in there. Can you do that for me?"

Her response was to pop out of the room, and I quietly waited for her return. It felt like hours but really only a couple minutes when she reappeared,ms tattling me in the process. "Hatty looks in the snakies room. There be's seven boys sitting by the fire."

"Do you know if either of them was Riddle?"

She tilted her head with a look of concentration before her eyes lit up, "One of them be misters Riddle"

I smiled at her and it seemed like it made her even happier, "Could you go down and check our common room and see if anyone is there?" She popped away and was back much quicker than before.

"Tis empty mistress." My smile grew wider and I quietly opened my bed curtains, breaking the silencing charm. I reached under my bed and grabbed my bag to retrieve my Jester book/map.

When I had it tucked under my arm I padded out of the dorm room, careful not to wake Rookwood as I closed the door.

Making it down the the common room I walked up to the painting of a sleeping lion and muttered, "Jester". The lion peeked open an eye before the portrait swung open and a set of steps slid down to the floor. I slowly climbed the steps and when I was in the passage I pulled up the steps, making the portrait swing shut.

Casting _Lumos_ I stuck my wand behind my ear and set my hand on the books cover, speaking the password. The book automatically flipped open to the seventh floor and I traced the path I would be using to make sure it was clear before I closed the book.

I made my way through the dark tunnel, carefully feeling in front of ,e until I finally found where the tune suddenly drops. Swinging my legs in front of me I felt around until I found the first step and slowly made my descent. Reaching the bottom I turned around and put my hand forward, instantly I was met with something wooden.

The portrait swung open and I crawled down the same steps as the ones from the lion portrait. When I reached the bottom I turned around and was met with the familiar room of the founders portraits, and to my immense surprise they were all sleeping.

The portrait I crawled out of softly closed and I saw Godrics sleeping form. I smiled softly and strode to the other side of the room until I was below Salazar's portrait. _"~Open~" _normally I would just ask Salazar to open it, but considering he was asleep I decided to try something else.

Just like the other portraits his quietly swung open an I crawled up the steps until I was enclosed into another dark tunnel. This time when I crawled forward I was met with nothing but air and my body plunged down into the dark. I held in my screams to keep anyone from hearing and I waited for it to end. Slowly I felt the tunnel start shifting and I slowly came to a stop.

Tightly clutching my book I shakily got onto my hands and knees and continued my way through the dark tunnel, my wand was the only source of light.

When the light from my wand came across another smooth panel of wood I quickly made my way over and pressed my ear against the wood, listening for any voices.

I heard several voices nearby, most likely the seven boys Hatty told me about. I knew it wouldn't be smart to throw the portrait open, it would most likely startle them and cause them to start throwing curses at me, and I don't want to see what curses they knew.

Whispering _Nox_ I was soon shrouded in darkness and I put my wand into the book, marking the dungeons page. Before I lost my nerve and ran (well quickly crawled) back in the other direction I quietly knocked on the wood.

The voices instantly stopped and I nervously chewed on my bottom lip before knocking again, causing the portrait to click open. I pressed my hand against it and pushed it away to reveal seven boys, all of whom had their wands threateningly pointing in my direction.

I examined each of them in turn and when they realized it wasn't anything threatening the lowered their wands, but I noted that they didn't put them away.

"Quite the welcoming party." I said dryly.

Quickly walking down the set of steps I waited for them to disappear behind the portrait before speaking again. "There is just one thing I wanted to do before going to bed."

I calmly looked at Riddle before taking a step towards him. The other boys tightened their grips around their wands but Riddle flicked his eyes over to them and they immediately calmed.

_Wonderful. He's already started forming the Death Eaters. Changing him is pretty much a lost cause now. _I thought.

We looked each other in the eyes, neither of us saying anything. I shifted my book into my hands and tightened my grip before bringing it up and repeatedly whacking him with it. All the while scolding him.

"You sir" *_whack_* "are absolutely" *_whack_* "horribly" *_whack_* "terrible." *_whack**whack_* He tried to duck away from my assault but I was having none of it. "All of this" *_whack_* "shit" *_whack_* "is happening" *_whack_* "because of you!" *_whack_*

My book hung next to my side and I watched as Riddle stood up straight from his hunched over position from when he tried to escape me. He straightened his robes and gave me a blank look, his emotions carefully hidden, "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Abby."

I shook my finger at him, "Oh no. Don't you play innocent with me you know exactly what I'm talking about." I jabbed my thumb at the other boys, "Whether or not they do I don't know."

He said nothing for awhile but eventually gave a quick nod, "They know. But the question is," he took a step closer to me but I stood my ground, "how do you know?"

I shrugged nonchalantly, "How I know is entirely unimportant. Of course the basilisk might have had something to do with it." I leaned in closer and whispered, "You should talk to her about that." I turned around and would have used the portrait again but then the others would know how to get in. Although the founders told me only the heir of all the founders could use these tunnels. I contradicted them and told them I was only an heir of two, but they told me I had the potential to be the heiress of all four.

My thoughts were cut off when my shoulders were firmly grasped and I was forced to sit onto the couch. The boys situated themselves around me with Riddle on my left and the arm of the couch trapping me on my right.

Before anyone could say anything I held up my hand to stall any further conversation, "Look I only can down here to hit Riddle like I promised him."

"Yes indeed, and what an interesting entrance you made." Riddles dark voice really creeped me out, but I made sure nobody in the room could see how creeped out I was. _Thank God Salazar taught me how to hide my emotions with occlumency._

I sniffed, "It's nothing special."

"No?" He raised a smooth brow, "Then what would you call it?"

I pursed my lips thinking of what I could possibly say, "Well it's just how I get from one common room to another." I wanted to slap myself _Cause they needed to know that. _"And speaking of common rooms it's time for me to get back to mine." I tried to get up from the couch but I suddenly couldn't move and I was stuck sitting in the couch.

"Oh I'm not quite done talking with you yet miss Abby." Riddle smirked at me.

"Well I am certainly done speaking with you," I wanted to spit the words at him but I kept my tone cool. Finding my always at the ready magic I got rid of whatever spell had me frozen to the couch but I acted as though it was still there, deciding to wait for a better moment to try and make my escape.

Riddle chuckled as if amused, and I wondered if he really was or if it was just for show. "Come now, we're all friends here," I wanted to snort but held it in, "no need to be so cold to us." His eyes drifted to the book in my lap and I kept my hand from tightening around it. "And what's this? I've never seen this book in the library."

He slid the book from my hands and now it took no effort to keep myself frozen stiff. I stared at him with wide eyes and inwardly cursed myself for not clearing the book. "It really nothing just–" he was about to open the book when I quickly punched him across the jaw and his face snapped to the right. I snapped the book shut before hopping over the back of the couch. Vaguely noticing that my wand was still in the book and for that I was grateful.

I ran for the around the common room, dodging any and every spell that came towards me. In the confusion and noise I called for Hatty. The sound of her popping in went unnoticed and when she saw what was going on she grabbed onto my pants and popped us away.

We landed in the Gryffindor common room, and when I looked around the empty room I gave a sigh of relief and took no time in picking Hatty up and squeezing her in a hug. "Thank you"

I set her down and she was looking away at the floor with what looked like a blush, "Hatty is very welcome," and she popped away.

Making my way back into my dorm I said the locking password and safely tucked it away before climbing into bed and closing the bed curtains, intent on sleeping off the stress from the day.


	18. Chapter 18

It was a Saturday night and I made my way down to the ground floor through the secret passageways, careful to keep my map open at all times to prevent any unfortunate run-ins with the basilisk.

When I made it to the main doors I eased through them, thankful they weren't locked. Closing the book I whispered the password to clear any traces of the map before shrinking it and putting it in my pocket.

Taking a deep breath and focused until I felt every part of my body stop changing. I gave a full body shake to get used to my new form before descending the castle steps. My claws making quiet clacking noises against the stone.

Once I reached the bottom of the steps I broke out into a run. I headed straight for the forest, not wanting to risk anyone looking out their bedroom window and seeing a large black wolf (a.k.a me) frolicking around the grounds.

I wasted no time in breaking through the tree line, dodging trees and jumping over rocks and roots. It was much darker in the Forbidden forest but in wolf form it was easy to see my surroundings. The only source of light was the occasional blueish beams of moonlight.

I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and I wouldn't be surprised if I was lost, but at the moment I didn't care. Being able to run this fast and feeling the wind rushing through my fur made me feel free.

My reckless running was interrupted when I burst into a clearing. I dug my paws into the ground and came to an instant stop, making me pitch forward and land on my face.

Slowly peeling off of the ground I sat back and changed out of my animagus form. I rubbed my nose to try and get rid of the pain and when I looked up my whole body froze, but not in fright.

Standing in the clearing was a small group of pure white unicorns. The light from the moon was shining into the clearing and making their coats look as though they were glowing. They were all bunched up at the other side of the clearing. No doubt my sudden entrance had spooked them. I was surprised they didn't just run away.

Their head were turned towards me and we all had a quiet staring contest. I slowly crossed my legs underneath me and set my hands on my knees, not wanting the unicorns to think I was threatening.

Some time passed and throughout that time I was able to observe the unicorns, just like they were observing me. I couldn't believe I was actually seeing a unicorn at all, let alone six.

One unicorn seemed to have deemed me uninteresting and broke its unwavering observation to begin grazing in the surrounding grass. The rest of the unicorns followed its lead and spread out a little; although they still gave me a wide berth.

I didn't know how much time had passed but eventually I started to get up from the ground. My legs were stiff from sitting and I stretched. The unicorns were watching me from the corner of their eyes, making sure I wouldn't do anything.

I turned to leave the clearing when I heard a small whinny from behind me. Turning around a saw a unicorn foal cautiously trot up to me. I couldn't stop a smile from forming on my face and I crouched to my knees so I could be eye level with the foal.

"Hey buddy," I said gently. All of the unicorns were definitely looking at me now.

The foal snorted and came a little closer. I slowly brought up my hand and held it out between us, letting the foal come to me if it wished.

It looked at my hand curiously for a moment before coming closer and giving it a cautious sniff before butting its muzzle against it. My smile grew wider and I ran my hand over its nose and down its neck.

The moment was broken by a loud snap the echoed through the clearing from behind me. The foal ran away to who I was assuming was its mother and I spun around to see a grey wolf emerging from the foliage with a snarl.

The unicorns were nervously shuffling behind me, and I was sure as soon as any sudden movements were made they were going to bolt. Thinking quickly I knew the wolf was too close and I would never get my wand out in time, so instead I planted both hands onto the ground and shook myself out–just like a dog would.

As I shook fur replaced my clothes and my body grew out until I was once again in my wolf form. Holding my head higher I easily towered over the other wolf and looked down my snout at it. The wolf no longer looked as menacing but it still had a slight snarl and was growling a little bit.

I knew that if I didn't get rid of the wolf soon it would become even more dangerous for the unicorns. I gave it my own snarl and a growl of warning, but the only thing it did was cause the wolf to take a step back.

Taking a my own step forward caused the other to take one back. I paused and suddenly lunged forward and was rewarded with the strange wolf to give a frightened whine and bolt back into the trees. It seemed my size and the fact I was pure black was rather intimidating.

I turned and faced the clearing and was a little surprised to see the unicorns were still there. I would have thought they ran off by now.

I stayed in my wolf form just in case any other dangers decided to show themselves. We were back to staring at each other from across the clearing until one of them broke off from the rest. I figured it was the head unicorn, considering I recognized it from the one who had started grazing from when I first got to the clearing.

He stopped right in front of me and it looked down at me. I only came up to about its shoulder. He craned his neck back and after a second faced me once again. Only this time there were silver hairs hanging from between his teeth.

I made eye contact with him before deciding to slowly shift out of my form. Reaching out my hand I carefully took hold of the hairs and the unicorn released them.

I brushed my thumb over the strands before taking my hand and slowly bringing it up to the unicorns snout where he allowed me to pat it. I was soon stroking the velvety smooth fur in awe, unbelieving that anything could be so soft.

Reluctantly I removed my hand from the unicorn and took a step back. I thought the unicorn would go back to the others but instead it lowered its head until the tip of its horn lightly touched the middle of my forehead. A gentle tingle spread through my entire body. When it lifted its head the tingling slowly disappeared.

Gently touching my forehead I felt the lingering cold and smiled slightly and I tucked the hairs into my pocket before flicking my wrist and allowing my wand to shoot into my hand. Intent on finding the castle I whispered _Point Me_ and watched as the wand spun a few times and stopped, pointing northwest. Sliding my wand back into its holster I shifted into my wolf form and ran as fast as I could in the direction my wand pointed me in.

When I reached the edge of the forest I was surprised to see the moon was gone and instead the sun was slowly rising, casting orange ray's over the grounds and the castle.

Too early for anyone to be up I sprinted for the castle doors and got there rather quickly. Making it up the stone steps I turned back and quietly opened the door, happy that they were never locked.

I wanted to make it up to the third floor and was contemplating using a nearby passage way to get their quicker when I heard an unintelligible mumble from behind me.

I spun around but wasn't fast enough to dodge the spell racing towards me. I found myself hanging upside down, hanging over the floor by my feet. Looking forward I saw two boys that, even upside down, I recognized from the night I went to hit Riddle with my book.

The one on the left sneered at me, "Well well what's this?"

The other boy stepped forward, "Looks to me like a mudblood. A very familiar one too."

The first boy tapped his chin as if thinking of why I would be familiar before he gave a mock gasp, "I remember her now. She's the one who snuck into our common room and attacked Riddle."

I wanted to point out that I really didn't sneak in but decided now was probably a better time to keep my mouth shut.

"You're right Rosier, she did attack him." He looked at me menacingly, "I bet you thought you could get away with it too didn't you, you little mudblood?" My silence seemed to anger him, but if I opened my mouth I would probably say something stupid and make him even more angry.

He brandished his wand and sent a pale purple spell towards me, but before it could make contact with me it fizzled out. Both boys looked at the wand in confusion until he tried again, with the same result.

Rosier then took out his own wand and tried himself, but his spell stopped as well. They both glared at me in anger and apprehension. "What are you doing mudblood?" Rosier spat at me.

I looked at him calmly, "I'm not doing anything."

Both looked ready to punch me but suddenly feint footsteps could be heard from another corridor. We all looked in the direction of the noise.

"You're in luck mudblood." I looked back at the boys in time to see them quickly striding off, leaving me dangling in the middle of the corridor.

Uncomfortable with the blood rushing towards my head I took out my wand and intended to cast the counter curse, except I didn't know what it was. I wasn't sure what the exact spell was either so that didn't help.

Instead I posted my wand to the floor, "Expecto Patronum."

Expecting my normal eagle I was instead greeted with the sight of a large wolf. I blinked at it in shock but shook my head, deciding to think on it later.

Giving a sharp whistle to gain its attention I told it to "Go get the nearest person you can find" and waited for it to come back. Hopefully with someone who could help me.

A couple minutes later I heard heavy footsteps hurrying towards my hanging form and I hoped to god it wasn't a Slytherin.

"Danielle?" Hearing Hagrids familiar voice I almost cried out in happiness. Mostly because he wasn't a Slytherin.

"Hey Hagrid, do you think you could help me down?"

I saw his lumbering form come to stand in front of me and I saw he had his wand in his hand. It made me think of how he had a pink umbrella in the movies and it made me smile. "O'course I can!"

One mumbled incantation later and I was plummeting to the stone floor. I curled my head in to try and protect it, but I was suddenly stopped when something wrapped around my waist. "Sorry. Shoulda grabbed hold a ye before doin tha'."

I was then flipped over so my feet were reunited with the floor. Feeling the blood rush out of my head made me feel a little dizzy and I leaned against Hagrid for support. "Thanks Hagrid." I got out faintly.

"It was nothin' really" he sounded sheepish.

No longer as dizzy I stopped leaning against Hagrid and resumed walking up to the seventh floor. Hagrid fell into step with me and I flashed him a smile.

"If ye don't mind me asking, who did tha' to you?"

"Just some boys from Slytherin. Although I suppose I might have deserved it considering I hurt one of their…friends" calling Riddle anyone's friend didn't really sound right.

"I see," Hagrid grew silent and I was grateful. So far my morning has been eventful and I wanted nothing more than to go to bed.

We walked in silence for a little while and I noticed Hagrid was looking at me with a curious expression. "What?"

He seemed embarrassed that he was caught looking at me. "I'm sorry fer starin' at ye, but I was looking at the mark on her forehead. Where'd you get it?"

I looked up at him in confusion, "What mark?"

He pointed at my forehead, "Ye've got a mark on yer forehead an' I was wondering where you got it."

My eyes widened and I quickly felt along my forehead, and sure enough something was there. I just couldn't tell what. Looking around I ran towards the nearest bathroom, shouting for Hagrid to wait there.

Gripping the side of one of the bathroom sinks I looked into the mirror and sure enough, there was a mark on my forehead. In the very middle was a small silver dot with matching silver veins webbing out to reach halfway across my forehead.

I gaped at the mark in astonishment, wondering how it could have possibly gotten there. Thinking back I remembered how I ran into the unicorns in the forest, and that when the unicorn had touched me with the horn on its head, it touched me exactly where the small dot was located on my forehead.

Mouthing 'what?' to my reflection I gently poked the silver dot and I watched as it slowly disappeared,Malone with the veins. I set my hand back onto the sink and looked over to see Hagrid watching me nervously from the doorway.

"Are you alrigh' Danielle?"

"I'm not sure" I told him honestly.

"What was tha'?" He looked to see the mark but when he didn't find it returned his eyes to mine.

I wasn't sure how I should answer him. Telling him I was out after curfew in my illegal animagus form and met a blessing of unicorns isn't the greatest idea, but I didn't understand what was going on and if anyone knew it would be Hagrid. He was always big on magical creatures.

"Hagrid, what does it mean when a unicorn touches you with its horn?"

Hagrids eyes widened and he looked at my now blank forehead with understanding. I walked up to him, "You know what it means?" Not wanting to be in a bathroom I walked out and gently led him with me. I let go of him when he seemed to get a hold of himself.

"Yer sayin' Ye've been touched by a unicorn?"

I nodded in agreement to the question, "Why? What does it mean?"

"Well, because o' the mark on yer forehead that means a unicorn has blessed ye out of thanks or gratitude. They do this by touching ye with the tip of the horn on their own forehead." He looked over at me with interest and smidgen of awe, making me uncomfortable. "Nobody's been blessed for centuries. They say Merlin himself was blessed ye know."

I hadn't known, actually. Where he heard that I have no idea, but maybe nobody knew about it because he always had it hidden from view. Maybe touching the spot where I was blessed makes it disappear or something.

"Hagrid, do you think you could tell me anything else about it?"

As we walked in no particular direction I listened as Hagrid told me more about the whole blessing thing. What I was able to figure out was that the Slytherin boys hadn't seen the mark themselves was because they didn't have the qualities a unicorn would look for, like honesty and joy. Hagrid was able to see it because he has all of the qualities. If someone didn't have every single quality then they wouldn't see it. What those qualities are Hagrid isn't entirely sure.

It also seemed that the blessing was the reason the boys spells hadn't affected me if a spell was thrown at me with the intent to hurt then the blessing would react in a way that protected me from the spell. I made Hagrid test it out by throwing a cutting spell at me. He was reluctant to do so but I coaxed him into it.

When he casted the spell a large cut formed on my arm. I waved off his apologies and easily healed the cut. I then tapped the middle of my forehead where the dot should have been and asked Hagrid if he could see the mark. When he said yes I immediately told him to try another spell. Naturally he was very against the idea, worried he would end up hurting me again. I told him that if it happens then it happens, and he should think of this as a way to discover more about the blessing.

He caved and threw another spell, this time instead of affecting me like the first time it fizzled out before it could reach me, just like how the Slytherins spells did. I concluded that the mark only really did anything if I had it "showing".

I decided to keep it hidden. If someone was to see it when another couldn't then that would raise unwanted questions.

When Hagrid ran out of information to tell me we continued walking in a comfortable silence. It allowed me to think about my patronus' change. Big events or emotional changes in ones life. The only reason I could think of would be when I dueled with Grindelwald. That or when I killed that man. Thinking about it still made me shudder in horror and disbelief that I had actually killed him.

Ever since then it was Mcgonagall who noticed how I had changed over Christmas break. I had been more withdrawn and wasn't really talking to anyone. She was always there talking to me and trying to coax me away from the shell I was becoming. Our friendship grew even stronger. Otherwise I wasn't sure what could have changed it.

As we walked through the corridors Hagrid suddenly grabbed my arm and stopped me. "I want to show ye somethin'. It's only fair that I tell you a secret o' mine if I know a secret o' yours."

He began leading me down another corridor until we came across a door that I've never seen or either paid much attention to. He cautiously opened the door and brought me into a small room. Possibly a storage room.

Inside of the room there was a locked wooden box sitting on a bench. When Hagrid started walking closer, making possible cooing noises, the box started to shake a little bit.

Feeling apprehension start to sink in I backed away from the box as far as I could get. Hagrid unlocked the box and I pressed myself against the wall, hoping I would be able to sink through and run the other way.

The box burst open, making me jump in fright. I looked around the room for the explanation to why the box had opened that way. When I found nothing I looked at Hagrid, but I saw him looking down at his feet with an adoring expression. I slowly brought my eyes down to see what Hagrid was looking at and my whole entire body stiffened in absolute terror, unable to release the bloodcurdling scream that desperately wanted to escape.

Reaching up Hagrids leg was the biggest, most ugly spider I have ever had the displeasure of seeing. I faintly heard Hagrid tell me that it was Aragog, but the fear that gripped my insides prevented me from doing anything other then hug the wall and stay silent.

Aragog saw Hagrids gesture of introduction and it turned its many, many eyes onto my person. I made me want to throw up.

It started crawling towards me and I worked my mouth to hopefully produce some kind of noise. Preferably of protest.

"H-Hagrid, I'm, uh, rather terrified of spiders." I swallowed, "Do you think you could keep him away from me!" The last sentence came out as a high-pitched demand and Hagrid was quick to pick Aragog off of the floor, stopping its approach towards me.

"I'm sorry about tha'." He sounded so apologetic that I almost felt bad about my reaction. Almost. "I didn't know."

I took a shaky breath. "It's alright Hagrid. I know that you didn't know, just please keep it away from me." He nodded solemnly and locked it back into the box with a mumbled apology towards the spider.

When he was done locking the box we left the room and I was only too happy to leave. I wanted to stay as far away from that thing as possible. I would prefer the basilisk over the spider and I knew it wasn't even fully grown yet!

"Hagrid why do you even have him? It's illegal!" I'm not one to talk considering I have an illegal animagus form.

"I know," he still seemed solemn, "but he's just a little thing. He needs someone tee take care of him! What if he dies!"

I placed a comforting hand on Hagrids arm, "Its alright Hagrid. I won't tell anybody if you promise me you will be careful with him, ok? Don't let anyone else know." Hagrid gave me a serious nod and we continued our walk through the castle until it was time for classes to begin.

I knew Hagrid wouldn't tell another soul about Aragog's existence, and I wondered what had happened to cause Riddle to find out about him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:I decided I wanted the patronus to be a wolf so I changed it. And I'm really trying to keep Danielle from being a Mary-Sue but if that isn't working then it wasn't intentional.<strong>


	19. Chapter 19

_"~Parseltongue~"_

* * *

><p>It was lunch time and I was sitting in the Great Hall, waiting until it was time to head to my next class.<p>

Minerva was sitting across from me, occasionally sending glares over her shoulder at the Slytherin table. I had told her what happened with the two boys and I had barely managed to stop her from marching to the Slytherin common room and hexing them until they couldn't walk. I literally had to physically stop her from hexing them.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face to gain her attention, "Minerva can you please stop? There's no reason to be glaring at them, I'm perfectly fine!"

She huffed, "You're only fine because Hagrid was there in time to help you."

I decided against telling her about the blessing after I had tried revealing it, only for her to be unable to see it. That was my only attempt at telling anyone about the mark. I didn't trust anyone else like I did Minerva, and it saddened me when she couldn't see it.

Taking a sip of my water I glanced over to see a Ravenclaw getting up from her house table and leaving the Great Hall. Usually I would have paid no mind, but this Ravenclaw had dark hair pulled into pigtails, and round glasses sitting on her nose.

Here she was known as Myrtle Henderson, but where I was from she was non other than Moaning Myrtle. When I had first seen her while walking through the halls I had almost tripped in my surprise. I was used to seeing her as a ghost in the movies or reading it in the books. Seeing her made me realize she wasn't dead yet, and if there was one thing I could change I knew it would be her death.

Soon after Myrtle had left the Great Hall a small group of girls left as well with small smirks on their faces. When they left through the Hall doors they went in the same direction as Myrtle.

I set my goblet of water down. "Hey Minerva?" She looked up at me, "I have to go take care of something, I'll see you later, yea?" I didn't give her the chance to respond as I picked up my bag and left the table.

When I made it safely into the corridor I pulled out The Jesters Joke (the book/map). "Cross my heart, hope to die, the Jester is here to mystify".

Opening the book I turned the pages until I found Myrtles name. I was unsurprised to find her name surrounded by others, most likely the girls who had followed her out of the Hall. The only familiar one was Olive Hornby, the one who always seems to take joy out of bullying Myrtle.

I leisurely made my way up to the second floor where the group of names were located. My eyes were glued onto the book and I watched as Myrtle's name broke away from the others. She was rushing down the corridor while the others were staying where they were, most likely laughing at her retreat.

Seeing that I wouldn't have to and any bullying I went to close the book when I realized Myrtle's name had stopped moving, and was sitting in the girls bathroom. The second floor girls bathroom.

I broke into a sprint and headed in the direction of the girls bathroom. It wasn't long before I made it to the bathroom.

Hearing the sobs of who I guessed to be Myrtle, I uttered a small breath of relief. It signaled that she was still alive and I had a chance to get her out of here and keep her from getting killed.

Entering the bathroom I made my way to the stall where the sobs were emanating from. I cautiously knocked on the stall door. "Are you alright?"

The sobs suddenly broke off, but there was still the occasional sniffle. A whiney voice came from inside the stall, "What do you want?"

I grimaced at the annoying and pitiful voice. "It's Danielle. I was wondering if you were alright."

Another sniffle sounded before the door was pushed open on rusty hinges. Myrtles face was revealed and I saw the evidence of her crying. Her eyes were puffy and there was tear tracks leading down her cheeks.

I gave her a friendly smile, "Hello Myrtle."

"What do you want?" Her high-pitched voice had a thick quality to it.

"I heard what happened between you and Hornby. I just wanted to make sure you were alright." I was getting a little annoyed at having to repeat myself.

Myrtle just huffed and pushed past me, walking further into the bathroom. "You probably just came so you could bully me yourself!" she accused.

My brows furrowed in anger at the accusation. "That is not true Myrtle." I hissed at her. "I know what it's like to be bullied, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone." I walked up to her so I stood next to her.

She rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her robe, "Really?"

I gave her another smile, "Really." I threw my arm around her shoulders, "How about we get outta here and think of a way to give Hornby a taste of her own medicine?"

She saw the mischievous twinkle in my eyes and immediately agreed. I was relieved to be getting out of the bathroom, knowing the sooner we were out the safer we were.

Unfortunately that relief was shot out the window when I heard the grating of stone on stone. I saw an angry glint in Myrtles eyes, "Who's there? Get out!"

She turned around to finish yelling at the "person", and I tried to stop her but I was too late. As soon as the finished turning around her eyes had barely widened before she limply dropped to the floor, her lifeless eyes gazing at the ceiling.

All the air left my body in a rush, and it seemed like I had forgotten how to breathe. The only thing I could focus on was Myrtle's lifeless body. I didn't notice anything else in the room until I felt something gently clench onto my robe.

Startled I immediately went to look back but I was suddenly suspended into the air. A frightened cry escapes my lips as the walls of the bathroom quickly raced passed my vision. I was jerked to a stop and I looked down to see I was being lowered into a dark tunnel.

I started struggling against the hold and looked up to see the fangs of the basilisk clenched onto my cloak. My struggling seemed to cause tearing around her teeth and I forced myself to stop. If I were to continue struggling my cloak would rip completely and I would plummet into the tunnel.

Submerged into the darkness the only light was from the bathroom above, but even that soon disappeared.

It felt like forever until we made it to a large round door with snakes coming out from the sides. A loud hiss sounded from above me, obviously from the basilisk. Another snake slithered out of nowhere and made its way around the edge of the door, causing the other snakes to shrink back.

When all of the snakes had shrunk back the door opened with a groan.

What was revealed was an exact replica of the chamber from the movie. Large statues of serpents lined the dark and dreary room. Following the statues to the end of the room I saw a large statue of a balding man with his hair and beard carved into the rock behind it.

As the basilisk slithered farther in I heard the sound of water being disturbed. I looked down and sure enough the floor was covered in a small layer of water.

I knew for sure there was water there when I was suddenly dropped, landing on the ground in an uncomfortable heap.

I released a groan as I sat up from the wet floor, but soon stilled when I saw the large and scaly body of the basilisk slither passed me.

_"~Why have you brought me here?~"_ My voice echoed in the silence around me. I knew the basilisk heard me when she stopped moving.

_"~You would be a good mate for Master~"_ the basilisk chose to ignore my sudden choking from the statement, the thought of me and Riddle being an item was a rather sit urging thought for me. _"~Master did not want me to get you. But I did not care~"_

I just sighed. Should I decide to say something I would most likely end up yelling and the basilisk would get upset at me. I did not want to deal with an angry basilisk.

_"~You may look at me. My stare will not kill you~"_

Cautiously I raised my gaze but stopped right before looking into her eyes. _If I do die. I suppose it wouldn't be that bad. The only person who would really miss me would be Minerva. _I gathered my courage and looked up into the eyes of the basilisk.

When I continued breathing I looked around and patted myself down and found I was still perfectly alive. I gave a breathless laugh of relief and looked at the basilisk again. _"~Why am I able to look you in the eye without dying~"_

_"~I have several eyelids that allows me to control whether a person is petrified, dies, or has no affect~"_

I nodded _That made sense_.

I kept my gaze level with the basilisk's before, with a flick of my wrist, my wand was out and pointed at the basilisk's eyes. "Accio eyes!" Immediately both of the eyes were ripped from the basilisk's skull. I dodged the eyes and did my best to ignore the ear bleeding wails as I scrambled onto my feet and dashed behind a nearby statue.

Readying my wand I peaked passed the statue and saw the basilisk shaking her head around, trying to get rid of the pain. I pointed my wand at her again, "Diffindo!"

The spell harmlessly bounced off of the basilisk's scales and my body sagged in despair. I wasn't sure what else I could do against the basilisk without using the sword of Gryffindor.

I couldn't go up to the headmasters office to get the hat, but I knew someone who could. "Hatty!"

The pop signaling her arrival made me jump. She opened her mouth to ask what I needed but when she caught a glimpse of our surroundings her eyes bulged.

"Hatty I need you to go to the headmasters office and get the Sorting Hat. Now. Quick!" Not asking any questions she immediately popped away and I looked at the basilisk again to see she had stopped thrashing. Instead her head was lifted in the air in what looked like a sniffing motion, before her head snapped over to me and a low hiss filled the room.

I whipped around the statue and pressed myself against it. A pop in front of me made me look down to see Hatty holding the Sorting Hat out in front of her.

I took it from her. "Thank you Hatty. Now go!" and with that she popped away.

Sticking the hat on my head I ran away from the statue in time to miss the attack from the basilisk, clearly aimed to kill me.

_If it isn't miss Danielle. What seems to be the problem?_

_Not now Hat. I need the sword._

_Hmm. What sword?_

I groaned out loud and quickly ran around the room, trying to keep the distance between myself and the angry basilisk that was chasing me I don't have time for this. _Please, PLEASE, just let me use the sword._

_And why should I let you?_

_Cause without it I'm gonna die!_

_That hardly seems like a good reason. But I can feel your urgency. _I felt something very hard, and very heavy, hit the top of my head.

Wincing, I removed the hat and reach end inside. My hand hit something metallic and I wrapped my hand around it.

Pulling it out I did my best to admire the intricately designed sword, but a loud hiss from behind me made me jump to the side.

Upset that her prey was getting away from her the basilisk brought her head high above me. I stood there in terror but determinedly held the sword in front of me, ignoring how much I was shaking.

She lunged down at me and I dodged to the side as fast as I could. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I was holding the sword away from my body, and when her head passed me the corner of her mouth got caught on the sword. As she continued forward the sword ripped through her mouth, cutting into her cheek.

The sword was ripped from my grip and fell a few feet away. Ignoring the hot blood that rained down onto me, I dove for the sword and rolled away in time for the basilisk to ram her face into the floor instead of my body.

Reacting quickly I brought up the sword and rammed it onto her eye socket. A huge shudder wracked her entire body before she finally fell limp.

My hands were still tightly gripping the sword, causing my knickers to turn white. I looked at the basilisk and waited to see if she was still actually alive before I dislodged the sword from her eye.

With the sword no longer in her eye blood started to gush out and onto the ground. Laying so close to her head some of the blood got onto me, but I didn't have the energy to care. But soon enough the heat of the blood started bothering me and I rolled away, onto my hands and knees.

Shakily getting onto my feet I leaned against the body of the basilisk until I was sure I would be able to walk without falling over.

Spotting the Sorting Hat I leaned down and picked it up from the ground. As I walked out and passed the round snake door I did my best to shake the water from the Hat.

In my tired state I decided I would fix my clothes later and take a much needed shower. Just the thought getting this blood off of me made me pick up my pace.

I finally made it out of the Chamber and when I saw the light streaming through the window I was surprised how how quick everything had happened.

Looking over I saw Myrtles body was still lying in the bathroom. Seeing it made me feel more sick than I already was and I forced myself to ignore her and left the bathroom. I didn't have the strength to drag her, and I wasn't up for using any magic.

As I walked down the corridors the Hat hung limply in one hand and the sword dragged against the floor behind me. The portraits watched me walk passed in astonishment. Whispering to each other about what could have possibly happened.

I paid them no mind as I trudged up to the Great Hall doors. Pushing the doors open I made my way down the center of the tables. As more people saw me the Hall grew quieter until the only sound was that of the sword scraping against the floor.

Making it up to the head table I stopped in front of Dippet. I set the Hat on my head _I'm giving you the sword_. I removed the Hat and shoved the sword back inside of it.

Dropping it onto Dippets plate I said two words, "Myrtles dead." and with that I dropped to the floor in a dead faint.


	20. Chapter 20

The school year was quickly coming to an end, and so was my patience.

Ever since I had fainted in the Great Hall in a heap of clothes and blood everybody has been hounding me for details. My only savior was Minerva, and when I asked her about Hagrid she told me he was expelled for the attacks.

I had immediately demanded her to tell me what happened. When I fainted I was so exhausted that I had been out for two, almost three, days. In that time Dippet had declared the school would be closing, and almost immediately Tom Riddle had found out the culprit behind the attacks. The culprit being Hagrid.

Everyone believed it to be Hagrid of course, he was always so fascinated with dangerous creatures. Why wouldn't he be the one responsible?

Thankfully Dumbledore was able to convince the Ministry not to throw Hagrid in Azkaban.

Now that I was no longer being held up in the Hospital Wing I was able to go to classes as usual. Unfortunately everywhere I went everybody's eyes seemed to follow me. I have told both Dippet and Dumbledore what had taken place in the chamber, but it seemed that I underestimated the power of gossip, because by the end of the week everybody knew that I killed the monster.

Now that it was the end of the year it was time for all the fifth years to take their O.W.L's and I was never more thankful to have something to distract me, even if it was to study. At least now the rest of the school was too busy studying to bother me as much, but they still stared at me when they had the chance. Some would actually come up to me and ask what happened. My only response would be to glare at them and walk away.

The one pair of eyes that bothered me the most were the ones belonging to Tom Riddle himself. He probably went down to the chamber himself and saw the basilisk's corpse.

Whenever I made eye contact with him I could see that he was angry, whether it was at me or over the death of the basilisk I wasn't sure. There was also a hint of respect, maybe because I killed a basilisk and lived.

At this moment I was pointedly ignoring the stares as Dippet said the end of the year speech. Every student was wearing a black cap and at the end of the speech we all threw the caps into the air. Cheers were heard throughout the entire room.

As the excitement died down the student started to get up from their seats to leave the Hall. I was talking with Minerva when a throat was cleared from behind me. Turning around I was greeted with Dumbledores jovial smile.

"Hello miss Abby!"

I smiled, "Hello professor."

"I'm sorry to bother you but I need you to come with me up to the headmasters office."

I nodded in acceptance and told Minerva I would catch up with he later. Following behind Dumbledore, he lead me to the back of the Hall and we entered through the teachers door.

We walked in silence until we made it to the gargoyle statue leading up to the headmasters office. Dumbledore spoke the password and we made our way up to the office.

When we entered I was surprised to see Riddle was there as well. If he was surprised at my appearance he didn't show it, though he didn't show many feelings in the first place.

I stood next to Riddle and faced Dippet from across the desk. "Are we in trouble headmaster?"

Dippet chuckled, "No no, you're not in trouble. Quite the opposite in fact." He pulled open a drawer from his desk and took out two polished pieces of wood. When he handed them to us we saw there was a golden shield on the wood.

We took them and read what they said:

_Awarded to:_

_Danielle Abby_

_For special services to the school._

"What if this for?" I asked.

"You did this school a great service by getting rid of that monster for good Miss Abby. As for you Mister Riddle, you got rid of the real culprit behind the attacks. Thanks to the both of you, the school can be safe once again."

I bit out a quick "Thank you, headmaster" before falling silent. I wanted to shout out that Riddle was the culprit, they shouldn't be giving him an award.

"There was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. Mainly you Miss Abby" I looked up at Dippet, wondering what he wanted to say.

"Last year you had stayed here in the castle because you had nowhere else to go, and I'm assuming you still don't?" I gave a sad smile and nodded. He returned the smile and continued, "I'm afraid I cannot let you stay here again, and with nowhere to go I'm afraid I'll have to send you home with Tom here."

I saw Riddle stiffen in the corner of my eye but I pretended not to see it. "You say it like its a bad thing." I was subtly hinting for them to elaborate.

"Tom here has lost his family at a young age, and currently lives in an orphanage."

I furrowed my brows, "You're sending me to an orphanage?"

"Indeed. I am sorry my dear, but there really is nowhere else for you to go."

He made it sound like going to an orphanage was absolutely horrible, and I suppose it was, but he could be a little nicer about it. Riddle was standing right there.

"I understand sir." I smiled, "If going to the orphanage is the only place I can go then I will." Dippet and Dumbledore both gave me a small smile and allowed us to leave.

When we made it outside of the gargoyle statue we went to go our separate ways but I called out to Riddle. He turned back to me and raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"I don't have any clothes." This time he raised both eyebrows and pointedly looked at my robes. "I meant muggle clothes dumbass." _Not appropriate for this time period anyways._

He seemed surprised by my swearing. I didn't quite understand why, but then I remembered girls don't exactly swear here in the 40's. _Oh well._

"Then figure it out." And with that he left with his robes billowing behind him.

_Bastard_. I grumbled in my head. Though I shouldn't be surprised.

* * *

><p>Pulling my trunk through the bustling crowd at the train station I forced myself passed the scrambling students, doing my best not to trip on someone else's trunk.<p>

I jumped through the nearest opening onto the train and was lucky enough to find an empty compartment.

I shut the door with a solid bang and set my trunk on rack above the seats. Plopping on the seat next to the window I propped my feet up on the opposite seat and closed my eyes tiredly.

The train ride was going to be a long one. I didn't have any music to listen to and if I tried to read I would get a headache. This is one of those time where I hate my motion sickness.

Feeling my body jolt forward I peeked open an eye and looked out the window to see the platform was empty of any students, and the train was beginning to move. I contentedly closed my eye and settled down for a nap.

* * *

><p>Abruptly I was shaken from my nap.<p>

Grumbling in distaste I squinted open my eyes and saw Riddle standing above me. "Get up. The train stops in five minutes."

Unhappy I was woken up I still removed my feet from the bench and sat up straight in my seat next to the window. Riddle slid into the seat across from me and I did my best to ignore his stare but it eventually got to me.

"What?" I snapped.

"Aren't you going to change?"

I looked down at my black converse, black sweatpants, and white tank top. Another black robe was thrown over my clothes. I shrugged, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?"

"Don't you want to wear something a little nicer?"

I raised a brow and pointedly looked at his choice of clothes. He had on a pair of scuffed up black dress shoes, along with faded grey slacks, and long sleeved shirt grey shirt to match. A simple but worn black tie finished up the outfit. I brought my eyes back up to meet Riddle's.

"I have no choice in what I wear. You on the other hand could wear something nicer." He defended.

"Well excuse me Mister Perfect, but I did tell you last night that I didn't have any decent clothes to wear, so I wore my pajamas. Besides," I shrugged, "I don't really care what others think of my clothes."

He seemed surprised that I don't care about my looks, like most girls usually do. Even in my time there were girls that took pride in how they looked and made sure they looked their best. I was always the person who just threw on whatever I grabbed first.

"Why don't you wear better clothes?" I asked him.

"I already told you I have no choice in what I wear. It's the orphanages uniform."

"Ok well I understand that, but why don't you use magic to make them look new again or something?" He looked surprised again. I seemed to be surprising him a lot.

"I never thought of it." He admitted. Immediately he took out his wand and waved it over his clothes, mumbling a few words under his breath.

I watched as his pants became less faded and his shoes looked brand new. The holes in his tie seemed to sew together.

The train suddenly came to a halt and a voice spoke throughout the train. "We have arrived at Platform 9 3/4. Please exit the train in an orderly fashion."

I stood and dragged my trunk from the rack above us, and turned to see Riddle standing in the doorway waiting for me. "Where's your trunk?"

He patted his pocket, and I knew he had it shrunk and stuck it inside there. "That's a good idea." I quickly did the same and followed Riddle off of the train.

He easily pushed passed the crowd of people, nodding to those who wished him a good summer.

We made it to the brick pillar we were supposed to walk through. The very solid looking pillar. But before I could think more on it I was pulled into a hug from behind me.

My squeal of surprise made Riddle turn around, but when he saw what was happening he rolled his eyes and stopped walking. Waiting for Minerva to stop hugging me so we could continue on our way.

When she set me down I turned around and gave her a quick, but proper hug before quickly backing away. "Sorry Minerva. I'm in a bit of a rush."

She waved me off, "No worries. Just make sure you write to me."

"How can I do that when I don't even have an owl?"

She didn't look concerned, "Then I'll just write to you."

I laughed out a 'goodbye' before rejoining Riddle.

He said nothing, just continued his way to the wall and casually walked through like it was nothing. Looking at the perfectly solid looking wall I was very hesitant to go through, until a hand reached through the wall and grabbed the front of my shirt. The hand yanked me forward and I easily stumbled through the solid looking wall.

When I made it all the way through Riddle immediately released his hold on my shirt. I huffed and smoothed out my shirt before speaking. "So where too now?"

Riddle looked around, "Mrs. Cole–she's the orphanages head matron–is supposed to pick us up. But apparently she isn't here." He said that as if it was a normal thing. From my knowledge about Mrs. Cole she wasn't a very nice woman.

I watched as Riddle started walking away from the station. "Hey! Where are you going?"

He turned around, "I don't have the money for a taxi," It looked like it pained him to admit this, "and without a vehicle to get there, we will just have to walk."

I still didn't budge, "How far?"

"Several miles." He there back casually.

"Oh nu uh. There is no way you are making me _walk_ that far to some stupid orphanage."

"Then how else do you plan on getting there?" He asked mockingly.

Rubbing my chin with my left hand I casually took out my wand before throwing a notice-me-not charm around the both of us. Walking up to the side of the road I looked at my wand and then to the passing cars in front of me. Riddle said something from behind me but I wasn't paying attention.

Thrusting my wand out in front of me I waited for a moment before, sure enough, a purple triple decker bus blurred into existence in front of me. The buses sudden appearance made me take a step back.

Walking down the buses steps was a man dressed up in a tattered purple conductor outfit, "Good afternoon folks, I'm Gary Pringle and I'll be your conductor for the duration of your ride on this here Knight Bus."

Shaking out of my shocked stupor I turned to Riddle and wiggled my eyebrows at him, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to take the Knight Bus." With that I stepped onto the bus.

I was sitting on one of the beds when Riddle also decided to get in the bus. When he saw me he walked over and sat next to me. The bus doors closed and I turned to Riddle, "You should probably hold onto something."

He didn't get a chance to ask why before the bus shot forward. I would have laughed over the fact that Riddle tumbled off the bed, but I was too focused on trying not to throw up.

"So, where are you two headed?" I looked up at Greg, and I wouldn't be surprised if my face was green.

"Wools Orphanage." The weak voice came from Riddle, who had finally gotten himself off of the floor and was laying on the bed.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence, with me trying not to throw up the entire time. With one look at Riddles face I knew he was having a similar problem.

When we made it to the orphanage we stumbled as quick as we could to get off of the bus and landed in a tangled heal on the ground.

"That'll be one galleon and five sickles please."

Uttering out a loud groan I pushed a Riddle off of me before pulling my pouch of money out of my pocket. Reaching inside I pulled out two galleons and handed them to him. "Keep the change." Greg was only too happy to agree and the Knight bus shot away.

We stayed on the sidewalk in front of the orphanage for a moment. "We are never doing that again."

I looked over at Riddle to see the color returning to his face "Agreed."

We stood up from the ground and I allowed Riddle to lead me through the iron gates of the orphanage and up to the front door. "Where did you get money?"

I shrugged, "I have my ways." He obviously didn't like that answer but didn't say anything else on the issue.

Riddle casually strolled through the door as if he owned the place. I shook my head at his actions but said nothing and closed the door behind me.

Riddle led me through the orphanage until he stopped me in front of a door. Politely knocking Riddle waited until a woman's voice barked 'enter!' from the room beyond.

He opened the door and I was greeted by a small office. In the very middle of the room was a rickety wooden desk filled with papers, similar papers were scattered about the room. Sitting behind the desk was a rather unkempt woman with the occasional grey hair sticking out of her bun. Tucked in the corner of the room was a large wooden cabinet, and judging by the woman's appearance I wouldn't doubt if it was filled with alcohol.

The woman raised her eyes from the papers sitting in front of her, and when she saw who had entered her office I saw the fear flicker into her eyes. "Mr. Riddle. I didn't expect you back until later." She tried to cover her fear by sneering at him.

At that moment her eyes landed on me and I saw disgust in her eyes as she looked me up and down. "I see you brought a friend."

"Yes Mrs. Cole." _So that's who this is. Figures. _"This is Danielle, and she needed a place to stay for the summer." Riddles voice was nothing but polite.

"So, she goes to that freak school as well huh?" It was more of a comment than a question.

The either way I felt highly offended and tried to defend myself, "Hey, I am not a–"

"Don't even bother denying it little girl." She glared at me ferociously, "We've seen the freakish things Riddle has done and ever since he went to that school the freakish things have stopped. They're obviously teaching him how to control those freakish abilities. If you're going to the same school as him then you're just as freakish."

I gaped at the woman in utter astonishment. "Damn woman, what crawled up your ass and died?"

My words made Mrs. Cole lean back, and it was her turn to be astonished. I could see Riddle clenching his mouth shut, probably trying to refrain from laughing.

I had to break the building awkward silence, "Well Mrs. Cole, it was wonderful meeting you." Once I said that I promptly left the room, Riddle followed me out.

We just stood outside of the woman's office for a moment before I broke the silence again, "So where's your room?"


	21. Chapter 21

_"~Parseltongue~"_

* * *

><p>Considering I've lived in an orphanage for ten years of my life, this place wasn't as bad as it could be.<p>

It was much larger than the orphanage I had stayed in but everything else was okay. It was pretty well kept, and there was always a bully. Here it was Billy Stubbs.

The first time he met me he instantly started flirting. At least I think it was flirting. Had he been a guy from the future he would have been one of those who said "If you were a tree, you'd be a good tree." So in other words, he sucked.

At first I had ignored him but he was persistent. After a short while I tried walking away from him but he just followed close behind. My silence seemed to bother him and he slipped in front of me to block my path. I was very tempted to punch him in the nose, but before I could Riddle had appeared out of nowhere and acted as though he had been looking everywhere for me.

The look on Billy's face had been rather priceless. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera.

At the moment I was sitting in a windowsill overlooking the yard where all the children were playing. I was absently turning the books pages and wondered when I would be able to get my drivers license. I was sixteen now, my birthday having been back at the end of spring.

A commotion from outside drew my attention and I looked to see Billy Stubbs grab hold of Riddles shirt, lifting him from the ground. I knew Riddle would easily have taken care of it, had he been able to use magic. Without it he would be forced to fight the muggle way, and with Stubbs being twice Riddles size I knew who would win in that fight.

I stood from the windowsill and ignored the book that was now sitting on the floor. I raced through the building and made it outside in time to see Stubbs punch Riddle in the nose.

Riddle stumbled back with a hand over his nose. When he took it away his hand was covered in blood and it was running in rivulets down his chin. The children who had surrounded the two were cheering Stubbs on.

I pushed passed the children until I was in the middle along with Riddle and Stubbs. I forcefully pushed Stubbs out of the way and pulled Riddles hand away from his face. I touched his nose and winced along with him when I realized it was broken.

"Look here. It seems Riddles girlfriend has come to save his sorry ass." Everyone around us laughed.

I looked into Riddles eyes and mouthed sorry, knowing this was probably a blow to his pride. His eyes reflected his acceptance of my apology.

Holding my head up high I turned to face Stubbs and calmly told him, "I am not his girlfriend. Only an acquaintance."

Stubbs snorted in disbelief, "Yeah, whatever." He cracked his knuckles in what would have been a threatening manner, and it probably would have been if I hadn't hardened myself to the fact I was in a battle with Grindelwald, also killing one of his men.

"Move aside girly, I don't want to hurt that pretty face of yours."

"No." He had obviously expected me to move aside like he demanded me to.

"I'll ask you one more time." This time he took a step towards me.

I was in the same boat as Riddle. Without magic to help me out there wasn't much I could do in a fist fight. Maybe I would be more successful than Riddle, but I still wouldn't win in one.

Tucking my hands into my sleeves nervously I felt my original wand strapped to my right arm. I desperately wanted to use it, but if I did the trace on my wand would pick up that I used underage magic outside of school.

On my left arm I felt the grooved wood of the Elder wand. Feeling that wand made me pause. The trace was in every wand sold, only breaking when the wizard/witch turned seventeen. The Elder wand couldn't have a trace because it's been around for centuries, on top of that it's supposed to be a part of a story.

Wrapping my hand around the top of the wand, I prayed to any listening God that this would work, even if I'm not holding it by the handle.

My silence was enough for Billy and he advanced towards me. He took two steps before I brought up my arm and pointed it at him, keeping my hand hidden in my sleeve.

His steps faltered and he looked at my arm warily. When nothing happened he continued towards me, and I whispered _Expelliarmus_ under my breath. To quiet for anyone else to hear.

The blue spell shot out of my sleeve and hit Stubbs directly in the chest. He was immediately flung back into the kids behind him.

Glad that it worked I grabbed hold of Riddles clothes and dragged him over the fallen children. I continued until I finally brought him up to his room. Now technically ours since Mrs. Cole never gave me my own room.

I sat him on the bed and pulled out the Elder wand, locking the door and making sure nobody could eavesdrop.

"You shouldn't have done that." I looked up at Riddle and raised a brow in silent question. "You will get in trouble for using magic outside of school."

"No I won't."

"Why–AH!" Riddle brought his hand up to his nose and gently pressed it, only to feel it was no longer broken. With another wave of the Elder wand the blood was removed from both his face and the small amount on his clothes.

"I won't get in trouble because the Ministry trace is on every students wand until they reach their majority. Considering this wand is centuries old, it wouldn't have a trace." I explained.

Riddle examined the Elder wand with interest. "Wasn't that Grindelwalds wand?" He raised his eyes up to mine.

I nodded in agreement, "It was."

"Then how is it that the wand works for you?"

"Well, to wield this particular wand you have to win its allegiance. Because I defeated Grindelwald in that duel the wands loyalty transferred to me." I returned the Elder wand to its holster.

While Riddle was busy looking at the place where I returned the Elder wand I grabbed onto his arm and tried to drag him from the room, but he stayed sitting on the bed.

"What makes you think you can just drag me around?" I looked back at him to answer, but closed my mouth when I didn't have one. Riddle smirked at me, "I thought not." I shrugged unapologetically.

"Where did you wish to drag me off to anyway?"

"Diagon Alley."

He raised a dark brow, "Why would you bring me there?"

"Because I want to go, is that so hard to believe?"

All he did was hum in response to my question. "And how were we going to get there?"

I honestly had no idea now that I thought about it. We both had a mutual agreement against using the Knight Bus ever again, and neither of us knew how to apparate or where to find a Floo.

"I have one idea." When i paused he waved for me to continue. "Hatty?"

For a while nothing happened and Riddle looked up at me like I was insane. "Who?"

As soon as he asked, a loud pop echoed in the room. "Good evening Mistress!"

I smiled both at Hatty and the astonished look on Riddles face. "Hey Hatty. I was wondering if you could take Mr. Riddle here and myself to Diagon Alley?"

Hatty happily nodded her head, "Of course Mistress!" Hatty held out her hand and I waisted no time in grabbing it, and after some coaxing from Riddle I got him to grab onto her other hand so we could disappear with a pop.

When we showed up in the Alley I waved Hatty of with a thank you and watched her pop away.

I noticed Riddle look from where Hatty was once standing then over to me. "A house elf?"

"It worked didn't it?" he had no argument for that.

With no set destination in mind we simply strolled around they Alley until we came upon what looked like a pet shop. With my love for animals I entered the shop, not caring if Riddle followed me inside or not.

The annoying sound of screeching owls and hissing cats was almost enough to make me walk right back out, not to mention the smell. But I forced myself forward and looked at the owls.

I remembered what Minerva had said about writing to her, and wondered if it was time to get myself an owl. Although Basil might not be too happy about it. She was currently residing in my trunk. It would have been hard to keep her hidden under my clothes when in the muggle world.

None of the owls caught my eye and I looked around to find Riddle in the very back of the store. I wandered back there and joined him.

_"~Hello beautiful~"_ the sudden comment surprised me, but I realized he was talking to one of the snakes.

_"~A speaker~" _from the voice I could tell the snake was amazed to be talking to a Speaker.

_"~I am. Why would one as beautiful as yourself be stuck in this horrible shack~" _I rolled my eyes. Even when talking to a snake Riddle was polite. Only with the snake he seemed more sincere.

_"~Riddle what are you doing?~"_ both Riddle and the snake looked over at me as I stood next to Riddle.

_"~You are a speaker as well?~"_ if it was possible the snake seemed even more honored now that there were two speakers instead of one.

_"~I forgot you were a speaker as well~"_ I looked over at Riddle and just shrugged.

_"~My name is Danielle little snake. What is yours?"_

_"~I was never given a name~"_ the snake confessed.

_"~Would you like us to give you one?~" _I asked her.

She grew excited,_ "~It would please me greatly~"_

The three of us descended into silence until Riddle spoke up_ "~Nagini~"_

Hearing the name and seeing the snake agree with a pleased hiss made my stomach clench. Naturally we find the Voldemorts future pet snake when we go out on a spontaneous outing.

Riddle suddenly removed the lid of the tank holding Nagini, and I watched as he allowed her to slide around him. "What are you doing?!" I hissed at him, in English.

"How else am I going to take her when I have no money?" He asked me this as if I should have already known what he was doing.

I huffed and dragged him up to the front counter. "How much for the snake?"

The greasy looking man behind the counter paled at the sight of the large snake. He stammered out "Fifteen galleons" and I waisted no time in throwing the required money on the desk.

As soon as we left the store Riddle turned on me, "Why did you do that? I don't want you to be buying me things as if I'm a charity case!"

Before I could say anything back a loud booming noise sounded throughout the Alley. Terrified screams soon followed and everyone started running in the opposite direction. Bolts of different colored lights were flashing into existence from where the boom had originated from.

Riddle suddenly grabbed my arm, "Come on!"

It was my turn to be dragged and he waisted no time in bringing us towards the flashing lights. "Are you crazy?! Shouldn't we be going away from the danger? Not towards it?!"

"That was a rather Slytherin thing to say!" Riddle shouted back to me over the panicked screams of the surrounding people.

"Well you are making a rather Gryffindor decision!" I shouted back.

He ignored me, and as we continued on I found that the flashing lights weren't lights at all, but they were spells. Spells being thrown by men wearing rather familiar robes. "Why is it that every time I go out, Grindelwalds men are there?" I complained.

Riddle pulled me into a side alley to dodge a stray spell. "Can we be Slytherin and run away now?" I asked hopefully?

"Where is all of that Gryffindor courage?"

"It left me back in December when I fought Grindelwald, and I hope to God he isn't here today."

Looking out of the alley I was thankful that I haven't seen any sign of Grindelwald. Said relief soon left me when I saw none other than Charlus Potter dueling against one of the robed men. The teenager was obviously loosing against the robed mans darker and larger knowledge of spells.

I was not about to let the grandfather of Harry Potter be killed right in front of me. We never talked much in Hogwarts, but that didn't mean I couldn't do anything.

Jumping out of the alley I raced over to Potter, but before I could make it the robed man shot three spells in quick succession. Charlus easily deflected the first one and dodged the second. Leaving him unprepared for the green curse rapidly approaching.

Just from the color I knew exactly what the spell was, and by the panicked widening of Potter's eyes he knew it too.

Pushing myself to run even faster I called out Potters name, but the blood roaring in my ears prevented me from hearing it.

I knew Potter heard me when he turned to see me running straight for him. His eyes widened but that was all he was able to do before my body rammed his to the side.

Looking down to see Potter had fallen to the ground we made eye contact and I had enough time to give him a small smile of acceptance. I saw Potters horrified eyes before a flash of green clouded my vision and a comforting darkness replaced everything around me.

* * *

><p>Charlus watched as Danielle's lifeless body fell to the ground. He couldn't believe that one second he was about to die, and the next Danielle slammed his body to the side, giving up her own life to save his.<p>

As he sat on the ground, pure rage began coursing through his veins. He looked up and glared at the man responsible in time to see him about to cast another spell towards him.

He rolled out of the way and threw every spell he knew at the robed man, but it still didn't seem like enough.

The robed man seemed to begin gaining ground until another person joined Charlus in fighting him off. He looked over to see none other than Tom Riddle ferociously sending spell after spell at their opponent. In his anger Charlus chose to ignore the slew of dark spells and continued to throw his own light spells.

It wasn't long before Charlus had the man disarmed and Riddle threw a dark purple curse, making the man start screeching in absolute agony. Charlus didn't know what the spell did at first, but when small tendrils started flowing under the mans skin before catching on fire, Charlus realized it caused the blood in your veins to catch on fire.

Both boys were panting as they stood over the man they had just killed. Looking up at each other Riddle spoke first, "We will keep this between us." As soon as Charlus agreed that he wouldn't speak a word about this to anyone, Riddle swiftly turned and walked away. He looked all the more menacing with the large cobra draped over his shoulders.

Turning away Charlus looked at the ground around him but saw nothing. He could have sworn there was something there that had caused his anger towards the robed man, but there was nothing.

Shrugging at the odd occurrence he brushed it off as a bought of anger. It was reasonable considering he was a dark lord supporter.

Trudging through the rubble Charlus eventually found the Leakey Cauldron where he was thankfully able to Floo home and tell his parents everything that happened in the Alley.

When he did tell his parents about his one-on-one duel with the robed man, he would tell them how he shielded one curse, dodged the other, and when he dodged he slipped on a loose rock causing him to fall to the ground and allow the Killing curse to pass harmlessly over him.

All thoughts of the blonde and purple eyed girl missing from his memory.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: *evily cackles* yes I did just kill Danielle, and before anyone yells at me there will be a sequel! Soon.<strong>


End file.
